3i Infrastructure buying up to 50% of TCR

Headquartered in Brussels, TCR is Europe’s largest independent asset owner of airport ground support equipment, and operated at 100 airports.

3i Infrastructure and Deutsche AM’s infrastructure investment business are each acquiring economic interests in TCR of up to 50%, with the remaining equity being retained by the existing management team.

Current owners Chequers Capital and Florac are selling their interests to the consortium.

Completion of the transaction is conditional upon receiving clearance from the European Commission under the EU Merger Regulation, which is expected before the end of August.

In a separate announcement on Friday, 3i announced a €5m investment to acquire a significant majority stake in Coeur du Sud - a special purpose vehicle created for the Hart Van Zuid primary public-private partnership project in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The other shareholders are entities of the Heijmans and Ballast Nedam groups.

3i said the €200m project involves the renewal and revitalisation of the area surrounding the Zuidplein and Ahoy centres in a PPP project with the Municipality of Rotterdam.

During the multi-year project, the Ahoy convention centre will be expanded to include an international conference centre, a music hall, a cinema and a hotel. An art building with a library and theatre will be built on the new Plein op Zuid square.

In addition, the Zuidplein shopping centre will be renovated and expanded, and the new Charlois swimming pool will be incorporated into the current city hall. The metro and bus transportation hubs will be renewed.

Construction work is set to start in the second quarter of 2016.

"This investment adds to our growing portfolio of primary PPP projects, alongside our economic infrastructure investments, and demonstrates our ability to originate attractive investment opportunities through our relationship with primary developers,” said Laing.