Briefs

In a joint venture with Credit Suisse, General Electric Co. has pooled $5.4 billion to invest in infrastructure projects such as airports, energy and waste.

Fairfield-based GE invested $500 million in Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which has its operations headquarters in Stamford, as well as offices in New York City, London and Hong Kong. The joint venture is led by Adebayo Ogunlesi, who previously led investment banking and client relations at Credit Suisse.

GIP has already committed $2.3 billion to the buyout of Biffa plc, a British waste disposal and recycling company.

 

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Key Lime fund

Lime Rock Partners has raised a new, $1.4 billion fund to take equity in energy projects.

It is the fifth such fund raised by Lime Rock, which was founded in 1998 and has offices in Westport, Houston and Aberdeen, Scotland.

Lime Rock co-founders Jonathan Farber and John Reynolds previously worked for Goldman Sachs.

Last month, Lime Rock recapitalized Lafayette Workboat Rentals L.L.C., a Broussard, La., charter-tugboat company operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

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First Reserve in barley fuel deal

First Reserve Corp. has obtained stakes in a Virginia-based biofuel producer and a company in Canada that provides contract drilling services to oil companies.

Greenwich-based First Reserve is investing $300 million in Osage Bio Energy, which will use the funds to build four ethanol production plants in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. Unlike most plants that use corn, Osage Bio Energy”™s ethanol will be derived from barley, a winter crop.

Along with Schlumberger Ltd., First Reserve is funding a $580 million buyout of Saxon Energy Services Inc., a Calgary company that owns more than 50 oil rigs. In the first quarter, Saxon Energy had a $5 million profit on $72 million in revenue, with sales up a third from a year ago.