Cezary Podkul

Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, in pre-marketing mode for its debut fund, will seek to raise one of the larger infrastructure funds yet. Last year the firm hired two Macquarie managing directors to head its infrastructure team.

The Vietnamese asset management and investment firm plans to begin raising the fund by the end of 2009. It will be Vina’s fifth fund, alongside three UK-listed and one unlisted investment fund the firm manages.

Blackstone aims to be among the infrastructure mega-funds, having put a pre-marketing target range of $3bn to $5bn on its debut infrastructure fund. Rival KKR is raising $4bn for its maiden infrastructure fund, while Macquarie is seeking $6bn for its second global fund.

Headed by Hong Kong-based managing director Philip Jackson, the Asian Infrastructure & Related Resources Opportunity fund is ultimately targeting $1.5bn in commitments for opportunities in China, India and other Southeastern Asian countries.

Actis director Alasdair Maclay also advised delegates gathered at PEI's Infrastructure Investor Forum that the firm’s equity returns expectations have held steady and that entry prices will eventually rise, creating lucrative exit opportunities.

The private equity veteran will not apply the standard ‘2-and-20’ fee structure on its infrastructure fund, which is targeting $4bn.

The deal allows the troubled infrastructure fund manager to proceed with a sell down of its assets over a two to three year period as it begins to repay the A$3.2bn it owes to a syndicate of 25 banks on a 'pay if you can' basis.

The trend was one of a number of observations shared by banking executives speaking at a debt financing roundtable at PEI’s Infrastructure Investor Forum in Berlin.

Co-investments in its funds and assets continued to drive the bulk of the write downs, which will total A$2bn for its current fiscal year. The firm expects its profit to halve compared with last year's record A$1.8bn result.

The global energy buyout firm reportedly committed $500m of equity toward the Longview Power Plant’s construction from its Fund XI.