Cezary Podkul

Mark Florian went from advising on blockbuster toll road deals for one of Wall Street’s finest to building out an energy infrastructure team at the world’s oldest energy private equity firm. In his first interview since joining First Reserve from Goldman Sachs last year, he tells Cezary Podkul why he made the transition and what he hopes to accomplish at his new employer.

The head of one of Canada’s largest pensions is targeting large-scale assets – with a little help from selected friends.

The infrastructure fund will take a 40% preferred equity interest an an ArcLight-backed owner and developer of renewable power plants – a structure that will help the firm avoid greenfield risk and give it access to an operational portfolio of wind, solar and geothermal power assets.

Michael Nobrega also said at a speech in New York that the 2-and-20 compensation model no longer works and active infrastructure investing is the wave of the future. He urged pensions to make allocations to the asset class and to make them large enough to invest in big-ticket assets.

Matthew Day, formerly a vice president in the industrials group at Macquarie Capital Advisors in New York, has founded Black Opal Equity to make investments in US companies that service infrastructure.

A Global Strategic Investment Alliance for ‘alpha’ infrastructure and real estate assets? One pension’s chief executive officer is working hard to make it a reality.

The $200bn pension’s senior portfolio manager for infrastructure now has two additional portfolio managers under him, Christine Yokan and Todd Lapenna.

An infrastructure firm called Emerald Infrastructure, raising a €750m fund, has told the SEC it is checking to see if its placement agent paid any external marketers.

Pattern Energy Group is funding the development of a 101.2 megawatt wind farm in California.

The Connecticut-based private equity firm has purchased a 43% stake in an Arizona coal power station, as it continues raising its debut fund.