The World Bank's $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

BlackRock, la Caisse, SWFs, and governments have signed up to the Global Infrastructure Facility.

The World Bank Group has announced a program to give global institutional investors access to the $1 trillion in infrastructure projects needed in developing nations through 2020.

The Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) will be officially launched later this year “to deliver complex public-private infrastructure in low and middle-income countries,” with a focus on “climate-friendly” and trade-oriented investments, the international organization said.

“We have several trillions of dollars in assets represented today looking for long-term, sustainable, and stable investments,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “The real challenge is not a matter of money but a lack of bankable projects—a sufficient supply of commercially viable and sustainable infrastructure investments.”

According to the World Bank, private infrastructure investments in emerging markets and developing countries fell to $150 billion last year from $186 billion in 2012.

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The initiative earned the support of major asset management and private equity firms, pension funds, banks, and governments from around the world. GIF’s partners include BlackRock, Citibank, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the governments of Canada, Australia, Japan, and Singapore, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

GIF “will also strengthen market investment in key infrastructure sectors and countries where such resources are lacking,” according Werner Hoyer, the president of EIB. “What we need are viable, bankable, and innovative projects which provide added value for investment and modernizing the economy.”

World Bank CFO Bertrand Badre said the project would “focus on the quality of infrastructure” rather than merely upping the amount invested.

The group said several projects had already begun.

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Carl Icahn: Apple Is Too Cheap

The billionaire investor urged the company to repurchase shares now using its $113 billion cash pile.

Apple is “dramatically undervalued” and now is the time to buy back the company’s stock, according to activist investor Carl Icahn.

In a letter addressed to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, Icahn said the company’s current share prices were cheap—half of what they should be.

“Our valuation analysis tells us Apple should trade at $203 per share today, and we believe the disconnect between that price and today’s price reflects an undervaluation anomaly that will soon disappear,” he said.

Shares closed at $100.80 yesterday and rose to $101.53 as of 10:40 am Thursday.

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Icahn, whose firm owns 0.9% of Apple’s shares, suggested the company dip into the “persistently excessive liquidity of $133 billion net cash” to make a tender offer. And he urged it was a “very opportunistic time to do so.”

“We feel compelled to do so because we forecast such impressive earnings growth over the next few years, and therefore we believe Apple is dramatically undervalued in today’s market, and the more shares repurchased now, the more each remaining shareholder will benefit from that earnings growth,” he continued.

The billionaire said Icahn Enterprises anticipated the iPhone to “take significant premium market share” pushing Apple to win “what is arguably the most important race of this technological era.”

Icahn assured his writing was not intended to criticize Cook and instead praised Apple’s work “to change the world through technological innovation.” He continued to say the Cupertino, California-based company currently stood as “one of the best investments we have ever seen from a risk reward perspective.”

Earlier this year, the activist investor warred with eBay over governance issues and proposed the e-commerce company split with PayPal.

Related Content: Icahn and eBay Battle Over Governance Troubles, The Spillover Benefits of Hedge Fund Activism

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