Australia, New Zealand and US seen are growth areas says Brousse
Infrastructure investor John Laing Group鈥檚 plans to list on the London Stock Exchange will provide new capital to fund projects in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, its chief executive has said.
The firm, which was taken private by two Henderson funds in 2007, announced this week it expected to raise 拢130m from a partial floatation later this year. Analysts expect the floated group to be worth between 拢700m and 拢1bn.
Laing now focuses exclusively on infrastructure, owning and managing and a portfolio of investments valued at 拢781m made up of 44 PPP projects and renewable energy assets in ten countries.
It said its PPP pipeline was around 拢1.1bn at the end of September last year, mainly with overseas work. The figure includes almost 拢200m of potential PPP investments where it is either preferred bidder or shortlisted.
Chief executive officer Olivier Brousse told 黑洞社区 the decision to refloat the business followed a record year of investment in 2014, which saw it secure the AUS$1bn (拢540m) Perth Stadium in Australia, a US$2.32bn (拢1.2bn) project with Skanska to widen Interstate 4 in Florida, and the UK rail intercity express programme to provide 122 new trains.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen in the past years a significant increase in demand for new infrastructure, with population growth driving the need for transport and energy infrastructure, and climate change prompting the need for new equipment, such as storm tanks,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e need more money to be able to deal with this.
鈥淭he best projects are currently in Australia and New Zealand, having said that the most promising market is perhaps going to be the US, although its not one market - there are as many clients as there are the number of states.鈥�
Industry analyst Tony Williams, founder and chief executive of 黑洞社区 Value, said John Laing Group was expected to be worth between 拢700m and 拢1bn.
However he questioned whether investors may be 鈥渃onfused鈥� about which John Laing they were buying, after Henderson listed John Laing Infrastructure Fund in 2010 and John Laing Environmental Assets in 2014.
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