Press Releases from InfraAmericas (17 total)
InfraAmericas Case Study: How Canada’s Jumbo CAD1.37bn CHUM PPP Bond Put Inves …
By Vince Calio
In the past 12 months, Canada has once again reaffirmed its status as the market leader in North American PPPs by closing deals including the CAD1bn (USD1.05bn) Ottawa Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) PPP in January this year, the smaller Thunder Bay Consolidated Courthouse at the end of 2010 and, more recently, the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Partnership PPP. But selling a CAD1.37bn (USD1.44bn) credit to investors in June…
As Interest Grows, Uncertainty Hangs Over Brazil’s Airport Concessions
By Mick Bowen
A sense of uncertainty lingers over the coming concessions in Brazil's airport sector as operators, contractors and infrastructure investors attempt to figure out exactly what the Brazilian government plans to do, market sources have told InfraAmericas.
Yet the process is irreversible now that it has begun, ensuring that Brazil's most important airports will come under private control in the next year or so, they said.
"The model still…
Is Private Investment in US Ports About to Make a Comeback?
By Michael Dunning
US ports are an attractive asset for infrastructure investors particularly because they are linked to GDP growth. It’s therefore not surprising that during the height of the rush to acquire infrastructure assets in 2006-07, they were at the top of many shopping lists. That led to a number of major US ports changing ownership. But nearly all of those deals ran into difficulties. The reasons why are many…
Future of Texas Highway P3s Hinges on Next Two Deals
By Mick Bowen
The future of P3s to develop highway projects in Texas depends on the shape the next two deals will take, namely the SH 99 Grand Parkway in Houston and IH-35E Managed Lanes project in Denton, market sources told InfraAmericas.
Texas Governor Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 1420 (SB 1420), also known as the Sunset Bill, into law in mid-June and cleared the way for the Texas Department of…
US P3 Forum 2011: What Happened in New York? InfraAmericas’ Ten Key Takeouts
By Peter Allison
The overwhelming message from this year’s event – held Jun. 14 & 15 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan – was that P3s breed P3s. In short, more P3 deals will jump-start the market.
It’s not as straightforward as that, however. The US P3 market is almost impossible to define. A P3 in one state may be completely different to a P3 in another. And even…
US P3 Forum 2011: Politicians Pitch NIB, but P3 Industry is Still Skeptical
By Vince Calio
The US P3 industry liked the idea of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), but expressed doubts as it heard pitches from Obama Administration officials and Congressional representatives over the four proposals for a bank that have been submitted. That was the sentiment during the two-day Seventh Annual US P3 Infrastructure Forum organized by InfraAmericas in New York City last week.
Heidi Crebo-Redicker, International Finance and Economics Chief for…
New Georgia Water Law Could Lead to Flood of P3 Activity
By Vince Calio
Almost a decade after Shirley Franklin, the 58th Mayor of Atlanta, helped put the brakes on water privatization in the US, the state of Georgia is at the forefront of a new effort to involve the private sector in the development of large water projects.
In 2003, Franklin ended a deal between Atlanta and United Water, a subsidiary of France's Suez Environment, for the operation of the city's…
An Open Road: Institutional Fund Managers Set Sights on Chile
By Mick Bowen
International institutional fund managers are likely to continue buying stakes in Chilean infrastructure assets, including toll roads, as long as investing in the country combines steady returns with limited risks, sources told InfraAmericas.
“In general, we’re going to see more and more. We’ve already seen direct investments in infrastructure by pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, and this trend will continue over the next five to 10 years,”…
Virginia’s Revised P3 Process Aims to Expedite Projects
By Libby Bruch
The Commonwealth of Virginia is on the move, with population, commercial, and military growth, and the state has overhauled its P3 program to meet the infrastructure challenges of those changes. With the support of Gov. Bob McDonnell, Virginia created the Public-Private Transportation Act (PPTA) Office in 2010. Along with revised guidelines and an implementation manual, the PPTA Office marks a more focused approach to managing P3 projects under…
Optimism High For P3s, Despite Worsening Municipal Finances
By Vince Calio
US P3 transactions generally are not threatened by Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies, and could actually help those municipalities that are facing bankruptcy due, in part, to large pension fund deficits. That was the consensus at a panel discussion on current developments in US infrastructure organized by the law firm Mayer Brown in New York Apr. 7. A total 100 P3 and infrastructure finance executives and attorneys attended the…
The Infrastructure Debt Conundrum – Is There a Role for Debt Funds?
By Jorge Rodriguez
Financing for all types of infrastructure projects, from construction of new facilities through brownfield acquisitions has been severely affected due to the financial crisis. Traditional sector lenders, the European commercial banks, have become increasingly capacity constrained as they refocus their strategies on home markets and core client relationships. Furthermore, increased capital pressure from regulators and sovereign debt issues have further reduced the lending capacity of these banks.
These…
Australia’s Future Fund Prefers Multiple Routes to Access the Infrastructure O …
By Peter Allison
The choices available to institutional investors with an infrastructure allocation are mind boggling. They can make investments with listed or unlisted infrastructure fund managers. They can invest directly in infrastructure. Or they can co-invest. They can have exposure to listed or unlisted equities, listed or unlisted debt. They can choose from investment bank sponsored infrastructure fund managers, independent managers and private equity managers. There are global infrastructure funds,…
Brazil’s Project Bonds – The First of Many More
Brazil’s current economic environment is impressive with GDP growing, a strengthening real, increased investment and a relatively low debt to GDP ratio. The country’s combination of left of centre policies, promotion of the oil and petrochemical sectors, a focus on social development, especially education, has enabled the nation to advance considerably, with scope for many further opportunities. Recent Brazilian economic history has improved materially since the “lost decade” of the…
The Growing Complexity of the GP/LP Relationship
By Peter Allison
One of the more intriguing points to emerge from the InfraAmericas and InfraNews organized Infrastructure Investors Forums (IIFs) in New York and London last month was that GP managed infrastructure funds are increasingly looking for an angle to differentiate their offering from that of their competitors and, most important, from other forms of capital.
A number of those GP managed funds said they were now sourcing deals with…
After Chicago: Can New Jersey Breathe Life Back into the US P3 Parking Market?
By Peter Allison
Morgan Stanley’s Chicago Parking Meter (CPM) deal looks even more of an achievement now than it did in 2008 when the deal closed in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ failure and the drying up of global credit markets.
Its rival Citi Infrastructure Investors (CII) didn’t manage to raise the necessary capital to fund a proposed acquisition of Midway Airport – also in Chicago – in those same turbulent weeks…
As Municipal Parking P3s Stutter, NJ Has a Chance to Buck that Trend
By Vince Calio
As infrastructure investors and parking operators cast their gaze across the Hudson, they’ll see that the New Jersey Transit (NJT) Corporation’s plans to privatize its commuter parking lots are facing some serious road blocks.
NJT’s System Parking Amenity and Capacity Enhancement Strategy program, or SPACES, would lease more than 37,000 parking spaces to a private concessionaire for the next 30-50 years, and raise much needed capital for NJT in…
Across the Americas 2011 – What Successful Infrastructure Investors Need to Kn …
By Peter Allison
Infrastructure investors looking to put capital to work across the Americas are becoming a more sophisticated bunch. That was the message last week in New York at InfraAmericas’ annual infrastructure investors’ day (InfraAmericas is the sister publication to InfraNews and can be found at http://www.infra-americas.com/).
Over 220 of the top Americas deal makers and infrastructure investors exchanged views about the state of the market at InfraAmericas' third annual IIF…
