Babcock & Brown infrastructure fund raises EUR 106m

Babcock & Brown has announced that its London-listed Brown Public Partnerships (BBPP) fund has completed an £84mln (EUR 106m) capital raising.

In a statement, the international investment and specialised fund and asset management group said the capital raising had effectively increased BBPP's market capitalisation by approximately 25%. The original target was to raise £140mln.

Phil Green, CEO of Babcock & Brown said, 'This capital raising, which was achieved at the fund's NAV less issuance costs, is a great result in the current volatile equity market environment and reflects the strong, secure cashflow profile of BBPP's portfolio of infrastructure projects. The raising will ensure that BBPP can take advantage of the significant number of opportunities coming to market in the PPP sector globally, continuing to grow its diverse portfolio of projects over the next 12 months.'

Babcock & Brown participated in the capital raising maintaining its 8.33% overall interest in the fund.

The new funds will be used to complete the acquisition of a further portfolio of UK, European and Australian public infrastructure assets, and provide additional funding for BBPP's investment pipeline. The PPP projects to be acquired by BBPP from Babcock & Brown include the Orange Hospital project in Australia, the Brescia Hospital in Italy and a further stake in the Diablo Rail Link Project in Belgium.

Babcock & Brown said the fund will also acquire interests in subordinated debt provided for the construction of eight projects being developed under the UK National Health Service Local Improvement Finance Trust initiative.