Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute

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According to Reuters, “The British government is selling “High Speed 1,” which has a 30-year concession to run a 110 kilometre (70 mile) railway linking London and the Channel Tunnel, to help cut its budget deficit. People familiar with the matter have previously told Reuters it could fetch 1.5 billion pounds.

The “GB Speedrail” group, already consisting of Eurotunnel, Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners and M&G’s Infracapital, has been joined by two financial backers, Britain’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, and France’s Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a spokesman for the group said.

“We will make an indicative bid today,” the spokesman said.

The five-strong group is vying with at least two rival teams.

One is made up of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, 3i Infrastructure Plc and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). A second, Canadian partnership has allied Borealis, the infrastructure investment arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP).”

Read more: Reuters

According to Bloomberg, “Chicago drivers will pay a Morgan Stanley-led partnership at least $11.6 billion to park at city meters over the next 75 years, 10 times what Mayor Richard Daley got when he leased the system to investors in 2008.

Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Allianz Capital Partners may earn a profit of $9.58 billion before interest, taxes and depreciation, according to documents for a $500 million private note sale by their Chicago Parking Meters LLC venture. That is equivalent to 80 cents per dollar of projected revenue. Standard Parking Corp., which runs 30,000 spaces at the city’s O’Hare and Midway airports, earned 4.84 cents on that basis last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.”

Read more: Bloomberg

It was a deal of the decade, when the CIC piled cash into the ailing investment bank Morgan Stanley. Now the CIC is slowly selling shares as its investment’s stock price rebounded from the trenches, especially after the failed Morgan Stanley deal with Mitsubishi UFJ. The China Investment Corporation is always looking for the next greatest long term deal; in fact they have a whole unit dedicated for special investments.

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According to the CIC press release, “CIC recently appointed Mr. John Mack and Mr. Joseph Yam as members of its International Advisory Council (“the Council”), to serve a term of two years. Meanwhile Mr. Arminio Fraga and Mr. Lawrence Lau resigned from the Council due to personal reason or concern on potential conflict of interest in business.

Mr. John Mack is Chairman and former CEO of Morgan Stanley; Mr. Joseph Yam is Executive Vice President of the China Society for Finance and Banking, and former Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.”

Source: China Investment Corporation Press Release

“June 2nd 2009: Morgan Stanley (MS) announced that it had priced a public offering of common stock for proceeds of approximately US$2.2 billion. The proceeds are intended to fully redeem the TARP preferred capital before the end of June.

In view of the excellent relationship with CIC and the preemptive rights CIC holds, MS notified CIC of the offering. CIC sees this as an opportunity to strengthen its relationship with MS, and it decided to participate in the offering and subscribe $1.2 billion common stock. CIC had existing investments in MS before this transaction. On Dec 19th, 2007,CIC purchased $5.6 billion mandatory convertible securities into MS common stock, representing approximately 9.86% equity ownership in MS. Following Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, inc.’s investment in MS in October 2008, CIC’s equity ownership was diluted to approximately 7.68%. This new purchase will bring CIC’s equity ownership in MS back to approximately 9.86%, effectively reducing CIC’s overall cost basis and increasing the returns potential.

MS is a leading global financial service firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. MS is widely expected to be able to leverage on its strengthened financial position and will be on the road of resuming its successful trajectory amid the dramatic restructuring of the international financial services industry.

CIC has further strengthened its relationship with MS through the new investments. CIC remains optimistic in MS’ future growth and progress.”

read more: China Investment Corporation