Cezary Podkul

Gathered in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica threatened to use subpoena power to show that previous legislation had been written with a goal to 'discourage' and 'dissuade' private involvement in rail and vowed 'it's not going to happen again'.

A new ‘alternatives’ portfolio, targeted at 5%, includes a 35% to 45% exposure to infrastructure, marking the $56.7bn Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s first specific allocation to the asset class.

The Canadian fund manager is making the loan on behalf of the IFC's Crisis Facility Debt Pool, which Cordiant has been managing since 2009 after it won a competitive selection process for the management rights.

President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union that he’d like to rebuild American infrastructure with the help of private investors. An infrastructure bank and a new six-year transportation funding plan are on the agenda, as well as continuing support for high-speed rail and clean energy generation.

At Ballard Spahr, Edward Rendell will focus on infrastructure and PPPs, among other practice areas. He left office last week without a much-coveted PPP bill or a signed agreement for the state’s first PPP, but market observers laud his leadership on the issue of increasing infrastructure investment in the US.

José Serrano, chairman and chief executive of the Mexican transportation and logistics company, said at the sidelines of the CG/LA Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum that TMM would be open to partnering with an infrastructure fund. Initial capital costs will require $375m of investment, with the Mexican Government expected to pick up the tab for $70m worth of dredging costs.

The asset class, which includes infrastructure, beat its benchmark by more than 2%, contributing to an overall return of 12.5% for the year. The $226bn pension’s private equity portfolio returned 21.5%.

The Washington DC-based law firm hired DLA Piper’s Richard Ornitz, a veteran infrastructure attorney who worked on the Port of Virginia bidding process and the Long Beach Courthouse. Five other DLA lawyers will be joining the firm alongside him.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s estimated $60tn of needed infrastructure spending thorough 2030 is likely to be met with only a $24tn spend by the world’s leading economies, according to a prediction made by CG/LA Infrastructure CEO Norman Anderson at the firm’s 4th annual leadership forum in New York.

The design, financing and construction of a terminal for bus and rail traffic in downtown Atlanta attracted interest from a John Buck and Jacoby Development partnership, Cousins Properties and a Hines-HJ Russell JV.