Cezary Podkul

As it warned investors of a 25% fall in its half-year profit, the Australian investment bank also disclosed several growth initiatives, including debt underwriting in the US and a new office in Argentina. A senior New York Macquarie executive is also scoping out opportunities in Brazil.

The Dutch pension's private equity portfolio returned 13.7% for H1 2010, compared to 1.7 percent for RE

Orin Kramer, chairman of the New Jersey's investment council, urged council members to lift the 28% cap on alternatives. The pension could have made $21bn in the past decade by boosting its private equity, real estate and hedge fund exposure.

The state will look for a private partner to design, construct and ultimately operate a new train and bus terminal in downtown Atlanta, which Georgia hopes to include commercial, retail and housing development.

A quarter of all LPs questioned in a JPMorgan Asset Management survey said real estate offered the greatest investment opportunity over the next three to five years.

After attempting PPPs under a 2003 law that didn’t result in any closed deals, Georgia’s up and running again with a new PPP law and a new team. This time, success will hinge on a fourth ‘P’: ‘personality’.

The $156m investment marks the US pension’s first direct infrastructure investment and the third stake controlling-owner GIP has sold to an institutional investor. GIP bought Gatwick for £1.5bn last December.

Sandra Burgess, the general counsel of the Georgia Department of Transportation, will head the department’s PPP division. Her appointment comes in the wake of the retirement of former PPP director Earl Mahfuz, who is now serving as the deputy director of PPPs at engineering consulting firm Wilbur Smith.

How to get the most benefit from public-private partnerships? It’s a question the whole of the US is wrestling with. In early June, Infrastructure Investor staged our annual Southeast Forum to find out how Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico are becoming PPP pioneers.

An investment policy approved by the trustees of the Florida State Board of Administration will give the state’s $110bn retirement system the flexibility to invest up to 2% of its assets in infrastructure. The move is part of a broader portfolio transition that shifted about 10% of allocations away from listed equities and fixed income towards alternatives.