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Abertis – high prices, deep pockets
Transport Asia PacificIt’s the biggest infrastructure deal in the market, the one everyone’s talking about – two giants of the European infra community slugging it out to acquire Spanish toll road operator Abertis… but it’s a deal that has more than a few wondering what the hell’s going on
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Fund analysis: AMP Capital IDF III
Renewables EuropeAMP Capital signed off on the final close for its third infrastructure debt fund at the $2.5 billion hard cap on 10 August, having started fundraising in Q1 2016
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The great American infra debt squeeze
Renewables North AmericaIn the land of the blind, the one-eyed man may indeed be king… but in the land of the free, it’s balance sheet that a monarch doth make. With limited greenfield activity, the US is gainfully employed doing what so many markets have been doing for a good long while – not an awful lot, and turning a buck where they can
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The Russia bear awakens
Oil & Gas EuropeWith the Russian economy on the mend, investment commitments have been pouring into the country this year from the Middle East and Asia, particularly in the energy sector
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Growth in Brazilian wind
Renewables Latin AmericaWind power still makes up a slim slice of the total power generated in Brazil, despite excellent resource in the country and decent investment levels in recent years. But interest in an upcoming power generation auction is high, and potential for international investment significant
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Yieldcos: going, going, gone?
Power North AmericaOn 16 October, Brookfield Asset Management subsidiaries closed on the long-awaited deal to up their parent company’s stake in the developed market-focused yieldco Terraform Power to 51%
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Peaking interest
Power EuropeThe UK “peakers” industry has shot to attention for fund managers this year, with sales of two companies owning flexible peaking power plants underway. A regulatory change to embedded benefit payments enacted this June has effected these companies’ revenue streams, meanwhile potential buyers will be taking a view on the existential threat to the sector from emergent battery storage technology
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US infrastructure – living the dream/nightmare
Renewables North AmericaWriting on Friday the 13th, waiting to board the most cost-effective flight money can buy between New York and London, this hack’s infra career is flashing before his eyes
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Norway's PPP contract off the beaten track
Transport EuropeNorway’s upcoming road PPP programme is kicking off with the Rv3/Rv25 Ommangsvollen – Grundset/Basthjørnet project, for which three bidding consortia were shortlisted in June 2017
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Even educated fund managers do it…
Renewables EuropeDIF do it, EISER do it, even educated Arcus do it. Let’s do it. Let’s flip a fund. That almost trips off the tongue, and it’s a darn site easier to sing than to achieve. It would appear that when it comes to infrastructure equity funds, Aristotle’s aphorism that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” rarely stands true
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Offshore wind - big business
Renewables EuropeThough 2017 has so far been a quiet year for offshore wind financings, the horizon is littered with turbines out at sea.
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Philippines: Build! Build! Build!
Asia PacificPresident Rodrigo Duterte has signalled his resolve to lift the Philippines economic growth rate by building infrastructure at the fastest pace possible. So who will fund what the administration has dubbed the “Build! Build! Build” programme?
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A lesser concession…
EuropeInteresting times and stretching the definition of infrastructure, it’s all you hear these days. Heck, it’s all we’ve heard for a good long time and anyone relentlessly beating that drum needs to take a look at just how worn the skin’s starting to look
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David v Goliath: What’s next for LNG?
Oil & Gas North AmericaIs there room for both large and small, modular LNG growth in the US and Canada?
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South Africa coal IPPs under fire
Power Sub-Saharan AfricaDevelopers of coal-fired IPPs in South Africa are having their feet held against the furnace by environmental groups, slowing their progress. The latest court battle – reminiscent of Thabametsi’s – sees the groups asking for the projects’ environmental authorisations to be set aside
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Ireland – a broadband broadside
Telecoms EuropeIrish infrastructure instantly evokes joyous memories of a healthy programme of investments from a very different economic environment – long before the wheels fell off and the nation was shamefully cast into the PIGStye. All transport projects ground to a halt towards the end of 2011, the door left ajar for social infrastructure… but nothing progressing
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Local bank decline in MENA
Oil & Gas MENAWhile local lenders become less active in MENA energy and infrastructure transactions, international banks are taking a larger slice of a diminishing pie
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Energy storage – country cousin no more
Renewables EuropeOver the years we’ve seen more niche sectors than you care to recall creep out of left- into centre-field for infrastructure. These are mostly whacky wheezes dreamt up by funds desperate to shift money out the door, often taking a punt on unproven technology. Some of the best examples for this lie in biomass, ethanol and tidal – projects doomed to be dashed against rocky shores of reality
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HS1 acquisition, UK
Transport EuropeA pool of fund managers formerly focused on PFI/PPP have become eager to buy, and hard to beat, when it comes to core, regulated infrastructure assets in Europe