The Department for Health has set aside the necessary funds – to be made available over 25 years – to help a number of hospital projects meet their debt commitments.
The fund, which recently raised £212m on the London Stock Exchange, has bought a 50% stake in two Canadian transportation projects from developer parent Bilfinger Berger. It plans to complete the acquisition of a portfolio of 19 assets by the end of the first quarter.
In one of the largest commitments ever made by a US institution to an infrastructure fund manager, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System has pledged a total of up to $500m to Australia’s Industry Funds Management.
Philippe Camu, until now head of European infrastructure, has become the global head of Goldman Sachs’ infrastructure team, as current leader Steven Feldman retires. Camu is now also the chief investment officer of Goldman Sachs’ two infrastructure funds.
A new survey has called for the Middle Eastern state to move beyond energy by utilising public-private partnerships across a wide range of sectors. The country has targeted $200bn of infrastructure spending to realise its National Vision 2030 development plan.
The New South Wales government has pledged to invest A$175m in the troubled Reliance Rail rolling stock public-private partnership – which counts AMP Capital, International Public Partnerships and RBS as investors – to reassure its creditors ahead of a planned draw down.
A fund managed by Enterprise Investors, the Warsaw-based private equity and venture capital firm, is to invest €40m in the Polish wind farm sector over the next few years through a new vehicle called Wento. The vehicle is currently examining more than 12 projects and is in ‘advanced negotiations’ on three.
The French fund manager has hired Bruno Candès (pictured) as an investment director to help raise its second mid-market European infrastructure fund. The hire is part of a ramp-up in staff that sees Infravia also hire talent from Amber Infrastructure and ETDE.
Vincent Policard has left Morgan Stanley Infrastructure (MSI) to join the European infrastructure team of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in London. MSI was hit by the departure of global head of infrastructure Sadek Wahba towards the end of last year.
UK pension appetite for infrastructure as an asset class is steadily increasing. That’s great news for fund managers, but not necessarily good news for George Osborne’s ‘Pension Finance Initiative’
The former global head of Lloyds’ project finance team (pictured) has become the chief executive of the bank’s infrastructure funds platform, which has recently closed a greenfield European infrastructure fund. WestLB’s Chris Heathcote is now Lloyds’ new global head of project finance.
Tarek Eltumi, who previously worked for the Libyan National Transitional Council, has joined the project finance practice of law firm Hogan Lovells in Dubai. He will help grow the firm’s presence in Libya and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries.
In an exclusive interview with Infrastructure Investor, Canada’s Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty explains that going forward his focus will be on economic – rather than recreational – infrastructure. And, with some large energy and transport projects to undertake, there will likely be plenty for private investors to feast on. Andy Thomson reports
The Italian toll road operator has teamed up with Brazil’s Bertin Group to form a new joint venture managing more than 1,500km of motorways. In addition, the partners are already eyeing a further 522km to grow their joint motorway portfolio.
Cost overruns on two of its Australian subsidiary’s key public-private partnership projects have helped Hochtief post a larger-than-expected loss of €160m for 2011. But Hochtief says it has now dealt with these issues and has ‘a sound operational basis for 2012’.