Carlyle raises infrastructure fund

The Carlyle Group announced last week that it has raised $1.15 billion for its first fund to invest in infrastructure projects.

The private equity firm said that Carlyle Infrastructure Partners will primarily invest in U.S. and Canadian transportation and water infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, tunnels, airport facilities, maritime ports, transit projects and other public benefit infrastructure. Investment targets will range from $100 million to more than $1 billion in enterprise value.

The fund was established in March 2006 and has 14 investment professionals in Washington, D.C. and in New York.

The team is co-headed by Robert Dove, former executive vice president at Bechtel Enterprises, and Barry Gold, former managing director and co-head of the Structured Finance Group at Citigroup.

“U.S. public infrastructure requires $1 trillion in funding over the next five years,” Dove says. “The private sector has a role to play, as seen in Europe, and can be a proven means of helping to satisfy such dramatic funding needs.”

Carlyle Infrastructure Partners has already made its first investment. Synagro Technologies was acquired in a public to private transaction in April 2007. Synagro is the largest recycler of organic, non-hazardous waste and wastewater residuals nationwide. —Alastair Goldfisher