Fundraising

The New York-based firm, led by former WP Carey executive Edward LaPuma, will be rolling out two real estate vehicles focusing on the sale-leaseback market in North America and Europe and seeking to raise a total of more than $400 million from institutional investors.

Limited partners’ heavy appetite for mezzanine strategies helped Blackstone’s GSO team raise billions to take advantage of a historic opportunity for non-bank lenders in the uncertain markets, especially in Europe.

The US Senate passed legislation Thursday that would eliminate restrictions prohibiting private equity firms from publicly marketing their funds.

The firm has sold a business line of UK engineering company Tomkins, the largest private equity buyout of 2010 at $4.7bn, to Madison Dearborn Partners for $505m.

The European private equity real estate firm has begun fundraising for its latest opportunistic fund aiming to match Orion European Real Estate Fund III in terms of total equity commitments.

Caiman Energy – which is backed by US fund managers EnCap Flatrock Midstream and Highstar Capital – is selling wholly owned gas gathering and processing subsidiary Caiman Eastern Midstream to Williams Partners, a master limited partnership focused on natural gas transportation.

Better than expected portfolio growth propelled John Laing Infrastructure Fund to success in its first year as a publicly-traded business. The fund garnered an additional £157m in capital.

The opportunistic and distressed real estate investment firm has acquired an unfinished residential community in Tennessee, with an expected value of about $750 million, from the bankruptcy trustee.

The $10bn Russian state-backed vehicle and a consortium of investors have acquired a stake in energy company Enel OGK-5, in a deal potentially worth $750m.

Metric Capital Partners has held a first close for its maiden debt fund after eight months on the road, about a third of the way to its €300m target.