Cezary Podkul

Over two years in the making, the 700-mile natural gas pipeline represents the largest project the New York-based infrastructure investor has ever been involved in and marks a significant economic development project for the Latin American country of 30 million.

Funded by the Asian Development Bank, officials hope the loan facility will spur up to $600m of infrastructure investment in the country. Bangladesh’s state-owned Infrastructure Development Company will administer the facility and provide 40 percent of financing for each project.

Oivind Lorentzen III and Jan Naess, who control investment manager and ship agency Northern Shipping, have closed the company’s debut fund for the shipping sector. Northern has previously invested in six private equity shipping funds totaling $350m through a joint venture with a German transportation bank.

The sale of a 3 percent stake in French water and waste management services provider Saur Group provides a partial exit to the private equity firm and brings in a new owner, Luxembourg-based CUBE Infrastructure fund.

Private equity investors looking to finance infrastructure projects in Australia may soon have a new competitor after the Australian government agreed to accelerate the creation of its Building Australia Fund.

The recommendations come as the region finds itself with rising infrastructure investment needs and limited public capital resources to meet them. Private finance initiatives, a type of PPP financing arrangement, have so far only accounted for 1 percent of the UKs total spend on such projects.

Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity, listed ageing infrastructure, regulation and new services among the drivers of infrastructure investment needs in OECD countries. Asian economies also face steep financing needs but offer more attractive returns.

The landmark bid, whose deadline for acceptance was twice pushed back in hopes of getting Pennsylvania legislators to approve it, lapsed on Tuesday after Abertis decided not to extend it any further.

The contract award is part of the US government’s experimental program to privatise five US airports. Details of the investor group’s development plans for Chicago Midway Airport were not disclosed.

The exit comes at a time when the Sydney Stock Exchange-listed infrastructure fund is looking for ways to close the pricing gap between its share price and its net asset value. It recently wrote down the value of the investment by 20 percent.