HSBC Infrastructure (HICL.L) said on Monday it plans to raise new capital to pay down debt and help fund potential deals it is considering. The listed infrastructure fund said it plans to issue new C shares via a placing and offer for subscription. Collins Stewart and Oriel Securities will act as joint placing agents, the company said. Join discussion...

Institutional investors are being put off infrastructure investment because of the high fees being charged by managers, despite the asset class appealing to them as a way of diversifying their portfolios, according to one of the largest investment consultants. Join discussion...

Private equity firms are following in the footsteps of Macquarie Group and the investment units at top investment banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley. According to Pensions & Investments, they are shifting gears to focus on a new area: infrastructure investing. The report argues the credit crisis and recession have put the traditional leveraged buyout businesses into “suspended animation.” P&I adds that right now some of the biggest names in the private equity field — Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone Group — are raising infrastructure funds that can deploy large amounts of capital. Join discussion...

Private equity firms are turning to infrastructure investing now that the credit crisis and deepening recession have put their traditional leveraged buyout businesses into suspended animation. Some of the biggest names in the private equity field — Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Blackstone Group — are raising infrastructure funds that can deploy large amounts of capital. Join discussion...

As investments, infrastructure monopolies such as toll roads and airports are usually safe bets. But, as we now know, it is how they are financed that can make them risky. Until the global financial crisis hit it was up, up, up for infrastructure stocks. Governments couldn't offload public assets such as airports, ports and electricity suppliers fast enough. Not that long ago these were considered too important to let out of government ownership and too unprofitable to be of interest to the private sector. Join discussion...

The British airport operator vying with Citigroup- and GE-linked funds to buy London's Gatwick airport has drafted in one of Britain's biggest retirement schemes to strengthen its bid. Join discussion...

State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender, and Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia’s biggest investment bank, have raised $1 billion to invest in ports and power plants in the south Asian nation. Join discussion...

Until recently, aging infrastructure assets looked about as tantalizing to private equity investors as a bunch of trees. The comparison isn't far-fetched. The long-dated, low rates of return that infrastructure assets produce may be marginally better than the low single-digit returns that timberlands might yield after 40 years. Which is why U.S. buyout executives, hard-wired for high risk-reward bets, were less than enthused. Join discussion...

The CAN$43bn (US$34.5bn) Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (OMERS) has taken a majority stake in the Detroit River Tunnel in a renegotiation of terms with its partner Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Join discussion...

CP2 manages about $3 billion in investments in infrastructure on behalf of pension and endowment funds, including the Harvard Management Company in the United States, the Universities Superannuation Scheme and Railpen in the United Kingdom, ATP in Denmark and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Join discussion...