Cezary Podkul
Some intriguing head-to-head contests have developed in the Infrastructure Investor 2010 awards poll. Particularly tight races are underway in the global fundraising category, where Alinda, Antin, Brookfield and Cube are battling for the honours; and in the global developer grouping, where ACS, Balfour Beatty, John Laing and VINCI have their eyes on the prize. Please cast your vote now.
Doug Ewing has been promoted to the position formerly held by CEO Sarah Clark before her appointment to the top spot at British Columbia’s procurement body for public-private partnerships. The appointment is effective immediately.
The City Council’s approval paves the way for Los Angeles to release the final agreement to bidders interested in a 50-year concession on nine parking garages. A winning bidder could be selected in March.
The city’s airport management arm is seeking investor feedback on a deal that would privatise Los Angeles’ Ontario Airport without going through the Federal Aviation Administration’s pilot privatisation programme.
The Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund has invested in a Moser Baer-sponsored thermal power development that will bring 2,520 megawatts of electric capacity to the power-hungry central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The fund invested $600m in 2010, which accounts for more than half of its first close amount of $1bn.
The city hopes to save its pension from a state takeover by pledging $250m worth of parking tax revenues to the fund, a move opposed by the mayor but backed by the city council instead of a 50-year lease of Pittsburgh’s parking meters and garages.
But the ‘financial engineering’ of the future will be defined more by growth in hybrid and mezzanine debt and equity and less by over-leveraging of infrastructure projects, according to an infrastructure report by AMP Capital Investors.
As Secretary of California's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, Dale Bonner oversaw the state's implementation of a new PPP law and helped bring its first PPP, the Presidio Parkway, to a commercial close. Bonner said he will remain involved in PPPs and may join an infrastructure fund.
The Toronto-based asset manager attracted $330m for its first private investment fund focused exclusively on agricultural land. The Brookfield Brazil 'AgriLand' Fund aims to make money by buying up pasture lands in Brazil and converting them to crops.
The firm is expecting to raise another $275m for the fund by the end of the year and has also picked up a $1.1bn separate account for Korea’s National Pension Service, firm executives said during a conference call. A KKR executive today noted a ‘much improved fundraising environment’.