We asked leading professionals in the infrastructure asset class for their thoughts on what next year has in store. Today’s opinions come from Alain Rauscher (pictured), Bindu Lohani, Stephen Vineburg and Joel Moser.
Infrastructure Investor describes six key developments in 2012. Mark our words.
The EU-focused infrastructure fund manager has acquired a stake in the owner and operator of a large offshore Belgian wind project. The deal is the first from Marguerite’s debut fund, which posted a €710m first close in March 2010 and is targeting €1.5bn.
UPDATED: Sadek Wahba (pictured), the global head of infrastructure at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, is no longer with the firm. Markus Hottenrott, Anne Valentine Andrews and Jim Wilmott are now co-heading Morgan Stanley Infrastructure.
What is the right level of fees and carried interest for an infrastructure fund? This is one of a number of hot-button issues we ask limited partners to ponder in our Investors in Infrastructure Survey 2012. Make your opinions count!
With bleak economic news continuing to cast a cloud, infrastructure funds will spy a silver lining as a new survey points to an increasing appetite for the asset class and a growing number of dedicated allocations.
You decide – take part in the third Infrastructure Investor annual poll. Vote now!
The Belgian fund’s maiden French investment sees it acquire an 80% stake in a special purpose vehicle that holds four prisons. Eiffage was the seller and will retain a 20% stake in the €270m prison projects.
The offer closed oversubscribed, attracting a ‘well-balanced range of high quality institutional investors’. The fund will use the money to buy up to 19 PPP projects from its developer parent, which owns 19.95% of the vehicle.
A takeover proposal from a French investor could trigger the refinancing of some €2bn of debt for France’s third-largest water company, SAUR, in which AXA and Cube are stakeholders. That could significantly increase the cost of SAUR’s debt, potentially endangering the utility, shareholders argue.
A team led by Amber Infrastructure has closed the £50m Scottish Partnership for Regeneration of Urban Centres (SPRUCE). The vehicle will offer loans to regeneration and energy efficient projects across the country and is Amber’s third JESSICA mandate in the UK.
The Dutch developer has kick-started its partnership with PGGM by transferring three operational PPPs to their recently formed, €390m joint venture. The latter will invest a further €100m in buying existing PPPs from BAM and allocate about €240m to bid for new assets.
In a series of filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York-based global infrastructure fund manager, led by Adebayo Ogunlesi (pictured) disclosed it has raised just over half of its intended $6bn final target.
Moody’s estimates Australia’s rated infrastructure issuers will have to raise some A$9bn to refinance existing debt. But while it states ‘issuers face increasing refinancing challenges’, Moody’s argues ‘the exercise should be manageable overall’.
LPs invested in Henderson’s second infrastructure fund have sued the fund manager over the vehicle’s performance, alleging ‘breach of mandate and misrepresentation’. Henderson says the claimants are ‘sophisticated investors’ and is ‘confident’ it has no legal liability.