Bruno Alves
Generali, Palladio Finanziaria and Veneto Banca have set up Venice European Investments, a fund targeting infrastructure and private equity. The new vehicle is starting with €400m and is aiming to reach a final close of €600m. It will replace Generali’s Valiance infrastructure fund.
Yearly infrastructure maintenance costs of €500bn are likely to pressure governments to create more investment opportunities for infrastructure investors, says First State Investments. Fiscal pressure on European corporates and EU directives calling on utilities to unbundle assets will also generate increased deal flow.
The president of the European Commission has called for new sources of finance to fund European Union infrastructure projects including 'EU project bonds', to be issued together with the EIB, and more public-private partnerships.
A research report by BNP Paribas argues that Indian highway concessions are becoming larger and are moving into riskier areas of the country.
The infrastructure investor has acquired an additional 5% interest in a regasification plant in northern Spain, taking its total holding in the asset to 30%. The seller was Spanish oil and gas company Repsol.
US President Barack Obama will announce a transport infrastructure programme calling for at least $50bn of spending upfront. He will also call for the creation of an infrastructure bank that 'would leverage private and state and local capital to invest' in projects critical to the economy.
Antin Infrastructure, AXA Private Equity, Allianz, Goldman Sachs, Infracapital Partners, Macquarie and RREEF are among the funds thought to be involved in the bidding processes for four gas assets across Germany, Spain and Portugal.
The A-Lanes A15 consortium, which includes the Austrian developer, is on track to be named preferred bidder on the Netherlands’ €2bn A15 highway PPP. The deal is generating strong interest among commercial banks, with more than 20 said to be looking at it.
Slovakia’s recently elected centre-right government decided not to pursue the PPP route for a €3.3bn stretch of highway after complaining on the campaign trail that the project was too expensive.
The two shareholders, which together hold 25.86 percent of Abertis, have agreed not to sell their stakes in the Spanish developer for the next three years.