Morgan Stanley Looks Into Bulgarian Infrastructure Projects

The infrastructure unit of international financial group Morgan Stanley is screening opportunities for investment in infrastructure projects in Bulgaria, company sources told Investor.bg on May 12.

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure was interested in airports, ports, investments in the energy sector, telecommunications and social infrastructure, among others.

According to Markus Hottenrott, executive director and head of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure’s European office, the bank was in preliminary talks with a score of local companies, but no deal has been signed to date. Morgan Stanley Infrastructure is generally joining forces with a local partner, strategic or financial, he said.

Projects financed under various European schemes were also of interest to the bank, Hottenrott said.

Also on May 12, Morgan Stanley announced it generated $4 billion in funds for a global infrastructure fund, which was $1.5 billion more than originally projected. The capital came from investors in North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Asia. Among them were large pension funds and insurers, as well as affluent individual investors.

The new fund will be run by offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure is a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, a company with $577 billion asset portfolio. Morgan Stanley operates more than 600 offices in 33 countries.