Latest Analysis
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%
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
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
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
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
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.
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?
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
Luton Airport, UK
Transport EuropeLuton Airport has always struggled to sell its London credentials, sitting as it does 13 miles north of the capital's orbital motorway. This refi of the concession re-fit and extend the existing facility in conjunction with plans to improve connectivity
Mind the gap
Transport EuropeWhile the UK government has talked a lot about bridging the north-south divide, the regions still lag far behind London in terms of investment in transport infrastructure