Distressed Investment

In an effort to accelerate job creation, the Obama Administration has announced that 14 infrastructure projects, including New York’s new Tappan Zee Bridge, will benefit from swifter permit decisions and environmental reviews.

LPs should be paid back all their committed capital plus a preferred return before GPs start to collect carried interest, head of Cerberus Stephen Feinberg said at an industry conference.

An overwhelming majority of investors who responded to a recent survey planned to maintain or increase their allocations to private equity, with high fees and a lack of transparency dissuading the remainder from committing more capital to the asset class.

The $23bn pension will look for opportunities to invest alongside GPs in its portfolio for the first time and has set its target commitment amount for fiscal 2012 at $625m.

The energy infrastructure-focused US private equity firm, which closed its second fund on $4.3 billion last year, has agreed to acquire a 575MW natural gas-fired power plant in Pennsylvania for an undisclosed sum.

In a move to tap into China’s growing thirst for potable water, the US firm has agreed to make a convertible bond purchase in United Envirotech.

The $154bn pension system has presented a 2011-2012 business plan that includes a target of $300m to $600m for new infrastructure investments. The plan also recommends that CalSTRS hire an additional investment officer for the infrastructure team.

Joe Sinyor, an operational expert who has held senior roles at private equity firm Terra Firma and media group Trinity Mirror, is to head Actis’ Value Creation Group, where he will oversee the performance of the firm’s infrastructure and private equity portfolio companies.

A new valuation indicates that the city’s parking assets may be worth significantly more than the $215m, 75-year lease that LambdaStar and EQT Infrastructure have jointly proposed.

EQT and LambdaStar have made a $140m all-cash offer for the heavily-indebted trash incinerator that brought the Pennsylvania capital to the brink of financial disaster. But the firms also made their offer conditional on a lease of the city’s parking assets, which LambdaStar has been pursuing for nearly three years.