Alinda Keeps Fund Open Through January

Infrastructure specialist Alinda Capital Partners LLC is keeping its popular second fund open until the end of January, a source familiar with the effort told Buyouts.

The New York-based shop has already cruised past its $3 billion target—an impressive feat given the difficult fundraising environment—and executives had planned to close the fund in the third quarter, as Buyouts reported in February. Our source declined to say how much the firm has raised since then.

Limited partners of Alinda Capital include the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., which committed $250 million to Fund II, and the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System.

Alinda Capital has yet to seal an exit from its debut fund, a $3 billion pool it closed in 2007; infrastructure investments typically take longer to exit than traditional buyout deals. Its portfolio includes BAA Ltd., an operator of eight airports in the United Kingdom and Italy, including Heathrow Airport in London; American Roads LLC, which owns and operates five roads and road concessions that include a border crossing tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario; and South Staffordshire plc, a water utility in the British midlands.

Alinda Capital’s fundraising success is a product of both its strategy and its timing. The firm surfaced as one of the few U.S.-based shops dedicated solely to infrastructure investments just as global firms such as The Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Goldman Sachs, among others, began forming infrastructure teams. All of these firms, as well as Australian infrastructure specialists Macquarie, see potential for steady, long-term returns in rehabbing and maintaining crumbling infrastructure in the United States.

In January, Alinda Capital hired Sean Dolan, the former director of Citigroup’s Global Energy Group, to the new position of director focusing on equity investments in midstream energy assets, according to trade publication Money Management Letter. Other sectors of interest for the shop include roads, bridges and tunnels; airports, ports and rail; water supply and wastewater management; power generation and electric transmission; and utility services for residential, commercial and industrial customers.