Cezary Podkul

George Bilicic, who joined KKR in May, will rejoin Lazard as chairman of its power, utilities and infrastructure practice. A source familiar with the matter said Bilicic is leaving the firm over differences about how KKR should build out its infrastructure team.

The Namibian joint venture between affiliates of South Africa’s Old Mutual Group will seek a black empowerment enterprise partner for the stake. The fund is targeting investments of around $360m in infrastructure, mining and private equity in 2009.

Citing deteriorating economic and financial market conditions and increasing cost of capital, Canadian pension’s infrastructure investment unit has lowered its bid for the Toronto Stock Exchange-listed income fund by about C$116m.

Aimed at becoming one of the largest owners and operators of cattle and sheep farms in the world, the fund is close to reaching its goal of raising A$1bn to A$1.3bn, says fund director Tim Hornibrook.

The Spanish construction company will finance, design and build additions to Florida's I-595 corridor in the next five years and then operate and maintain it for an additional 30 years. The State of Florida will control the toll rates and collect tolls.

The city will look to invest in domestic infrastructure funds after making an initial investment in the asset class earlier this year and taking a beating in its US equity allocation over the last few weeks, according to New York City Comptroller William Thompson.

Michael Queen told delegates at PEI's Infrastructure Investor Forum in New York that listed funds are better shielded from ‘flip pressure’ than closed-end vehicles, despite difficulties in constructing a tax-efficient carry scheme.

Discussing his experiences with London City Airport, GIP's flagship airport asset, Adebayo Ogunlesi also said infrastructure assets like airports are not immune to economic downturns.

Blackstone infrastructure co-head Trent Vichie and Chris Leslie, CEO of Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, say only a fraction of what's needed for infrastructure investment worlwide has been raised by private funds. Meanwhile CVC’s infrastructure chief, Stephen Vineburg, also speaking at PEI’s Infrastructure Forum in New York, said infrastructure investing has reached a third stage in development.

Some US officials are pushing for the introduction of public private partnerships to create permanent funding sources for transportation projects. California, New Mexico and Texas are among the states that say they need private funds.