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Bruno Alves

Bruno Alves is the Senior Editor of award-winning publication Infrastructure Investor. Bruno has been a journalist for nearly 20 years and first joined Infrastructure Investor in December 2009, where he quickly rose to become Associate Editor and a leading writer covering the infrastructure asset class. He’s been Senior Editor since 2015 and is also responsible for Agri Investor, PEI Group’s agriculture-focused publication.
Polish open pension schemes ended up being the biggest subscribers to the government’s share offer for 16% of Enea – Poland’s third-largest power group. The government intends to sell the remaining 51% it owns in Enea later this year for a control premium. RWE was in negotiations late last year to buy 67% of Enea but the sale fell through over price disagreements.
After several delays, France’s €1bn GSM-R rail communication PPP is set to reach financial close next week with between eight to ten commercial banks. The latest issue holding banks from writing the final cheque has been the need to get assurances regarding the status of the 15-year contract should rail agency RFF – a public company – be privatised in the future.
Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations has announced the creation of a unit dedicated to infrastructure investment – CDC Infrastructure. The new vehicle intends to acquire minority stakes in PPPs across the transport, energy and environmental sectors. CDC Infrastructure will mostly target brownfields and starts with a portfolio of nine holdings worth €600m.
Italian construction company Astaldi said during the presentation of its 2009 results that it plans to place its concessions in a separate company by the end of June this year. The plan is to then open up the concessions unit to outside investors once the business matures.
Ferrovial subsidiary Amey has sold a 50% stake in its PFI business – Amey Ventures – to DIF Infrastructure Fund II. The deal will give DIF equal ownership of 10 PFI projects but doesn’t include Amey’s beleaguered contract to upgrade London’s underground rail. Amey’s PFI portfolio is said to be worth over £300m.
Financial group Duet is targeting the UK PFI market with a new senior debt fund. The firm is currently fundraising for its new vehicle which intends to provide debt for short-term bridging facilities. A timeline for the fund has yet to be announced but Duet says it plans to have over £1bn of assets under management in five years’ time.
The Soteria consortium - including Royal Bank of Scotland, French defence contractor Thales and helicopter specialist CHC – has been selected as the preferred bidder for the UK’s £5bn Search and Rescue Helicopter PFI. The contract will last for 25 years with the private partner to start providing services to the Ministry of Defence in 2012.
Italy's Impreglio and Brazil’s CR Almeida Group, the controlling shareholders of Ecorodovias, will sell their stakes in the company via the IPO. Neither the timeline nor the number of shares to be sold are yet known. Ecorodovias is one of Brazil’s largest toll road operators, managing over 1,450 kilometres of roads.
Royal Bank of Scotland has pulled together a club of eight banks to join it in reaching financial close for Bilfinger Berger’s €562m Peninsula Link – a 25-kilometre road near Melbourne. The deal reasserts RBS’ presence in the PPP market, after it was forced to scale back its activity when it ran into trouble following the financial crisis.
Nicolas Merigo, formerly the head of Santander Infrastructure Capital, has been appointed chief executive of Marguerite Adviser, the advisory body that will be responsible for originating investments for the EU’s €1.5 billion Marguerite infrastructure fund. The fund is expected to reach a first close on March 3 2010.
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