Bruno Alves
The senior management of HSBC’s infrastructure and real estate arm is in talks with the parent bank regarding a management buyout. The deal would leave HSBC with a 20% stake in its specialist unit and would pre-empt expected regulatory changes that could impact banks’ ownership of private equity vehicles.
The real estate arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has bought 5% of French utility company Veolia Environnement. The acquisition is the fund’s second foray into the French infrastructure market after it acquired 5.78% of VINCI.
Christoph Schumacher, the head of indirect investments at Generali Deutschland Immobilien, the insurance group’s asset manager, said at Infrastructure Investor: Europe 2010 that LPs investing in infrastructure should create a platform for discussion similar to real estate’s INREV or private equity’s PEIA.
Senior Mexican government officials were in Madrid yesterday wooing Spanish firms and investors for the $50bn in infrastructure the authorities plan to tender this year. The standouts are a new airport in the Mayan Riviera and a multi-hundred million dollar highway package in the state of Jalisco.
Global Infrastructure Partners’ Michael McGhee said at a conference yesterday that the fund was planning to issue bonds later this year to refinance a short-term loan it took out when it bought Gatwick airport for £1.51bn last year. The issue would be done in Gatwick’s name, not GIP’s.
The property group has mandated HSBC Mexico to act as fiduciary and help raise a $256m industrial fund focusing on investments in logistics platforms across Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. The new vehicle will target returns of between 13% and 16% and is expected to be fully invested in four years’ time.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has bought a 15% stake in London’s Gatwick airport for £125m. The deal is part of Global Infrastructure Partners’ plan to syndicate equity after it purchased Gatwick from Ferrovial last year for £1.51bn.
South Korea's national pension isn't the only party lining up for GIP's equity syndication following its £1.5bn Gatwick deal.
South Korea's National Pension Service will buy a 12% stake in London’s Gatwick Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners for £100m. The UK's price correction makes property in the country a 'good buying opportunity'.
The National Pension Service is planning to buy a 12% stake in London’s Gatwick Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners.