Fundraising

The French private equity firm has invested a further €15m in Fonroche Energy following an initial €25m equity investment in April last year.

The $37.3bn pension fund will invest 11% of total assets in private equity in 2012.

The fund will focus on investments in late-stage solar projects in North America. All of the fund’s investors are publicly listed companies. CleanPath has already made investments worth about $10m.

EnCap's $792m energy infrastructure fund will commit $100m in equity to US Infrastructure Holdings, a Texas-based company focused on acquiring assets in shale gas developments across the US.

The fund has completed the refinancing of its corporate credit facility through an agreement with existing lenders which lengthens the facility and reduces it in size.

The New York-headquartered distressed debt investor says it is not closing its Asian operations, a claim put forward by a web site this week.

The industry has about $376bn of uncalled capital that was raised in the peak credit years, an overhang that is driving up prices and could expand as many firms are raising funds this year, according to Cambridge Associates.

The start-up firm run by Ric Lewis has brought forward a first close for Curzon Capital Partners III as it hones in on 5 European deals during a time when spreads between core-plus and value-added yields are at ‘a cyclical high’.

The IFC is considering coordinating $150m in senior debt for the $600m Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, which is managed by a division of Standard Bank. The fund supplies long-term debt to finance private infrastructure projects across Africa.

Permira is soon to launch its fifth buyout fund with a target that speaks to a radically changed environment to that of 2006, when it last hit the fundraising trail.