CHRONOLOGY-Major infrastructure M&A deals

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - An agreed takeover worth over 14 billion euros by Spain's Abertis of Italy's Autostrade , announced on Sunday, will create the world's biggest infrastructure company.

Below is a chronology of recent deals involving infrastructure assets such as airport, port and toll-road operators:

NOVEMBER 2004

* Spanish motorway operator Abertis buys UK airports operator TBI in November 2004 for 551 million pounds ($986.3 million).

JUNE 2005

* Singapore's PSA International Pte Ltd. [PSA.UL] buys a stake in a Hong Kong container terminal from Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. , the world's biggest operator of container ports, for $925 million.

* Unlisted UK firm Peel Ports buys rival ports operator Mersey Docks & Harbour Co. for 771 million pounds.

AUGUST 2005

* Spanish construction and services company Grupo Ferrovial buys airport handling firm Swissport for 1 billion Swiss francs ($788 million).

DECEMBER 2005

* French public works and transport concessions firm Vinci agrees to pay 9.1 billion euros ($11.27 billion) for toll roads operator Autoroutes du Sud de France (ASF) .

* Group led by Spain's Abertis agrees to 4 billion euro deal to buy controlling interest in French toll roads operator Sanef

* Australian toll roads operator Macquarie Infrastructure Group and French firm Eiffage jointly win controlling stake in French roads operator Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhone (APRR) .

* Australia's Macquarie Airports completes offer for Copenhagen Airports , valuing the Danish airport operator at 15.7 billion Danish crowns ($2.61 billion).

* BAA pays $2.2 billion for a stake of 75 percent minus one share in Budapest Airport.

* Hong Kong's Hutchison says it will invest 1.28 billion yuan ($160 million) for a stake in a joint venture to build and manage Phase II of the Yangshan deepwater port near Shanghai.

JANUARY 2006

* Australian investment fund Babcock & Brown Infrastructure buys UK ports operator PD Ports Plc for 337 million pounds.

* Czech government awards 640 million euro tender to build and operate highway toll system to Austria's family-owned Kapsch, France's APRR and Portugal's Brisa .

* Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport and India's GMR group jointly win right to operate New Delhi's airport for 30 years.

* Airports Company of South Africa and India's GVK Industries Ltd. jointly win a similar deal to operate India's busiest airport, Mumbai.

FEBRUARY 2006

* Slovak government approves sale of the country's two largest airports to group led by Vienna airport operator Flughafen Wien after it offers 11.4 billion Slovak crowns ($380 million) and to inject a further 8.28 billion crowns in return for 66-percent stakes in the airports in Bratislava and Kosice.

MARCH 2006

* Dubai Ports World completes $6.8 billion takeover of UK ports and ferries group P&O , creating the world's third-largest ports company.

* Consortium including Goldman Sachs makes an indicative 2.2 billion pound takeover bid for British ports group Associated British Ports , which AB Ports rejects.

* Australian global toll-roads investor Macquarie Infrastructure Group says it plans to sell three Sydney motorway stakes valued at A$1.5 billion ($1.12 billion), possibly via an initial public offering.

APRIL 2006

* The board of Italy's Autostrade approves a 14.3 billion euro takeover by Spain's Abertis to create the world's largest toll road operator and infrastructure company, with a market capitalisation of around 25 billion euros and enterprise value of 45 billion euros.

* Spain's Grupo Ferrovial spearheads a 8.75 billion pound ($15.7 billion) hostile bid for UK airports operator BAA Plc .

* Hong Kong's Hutchison sells a 20-percent stake in its port arm to Singapore's PSA for $4.4 billion.

* Australia's Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Spain's Cintra (Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA) work to finalise purchase of Indiana Toll Road concession worth $3.8 billion, with financial close expected June 30.

* France plans to sell a minority stake in state-owned Aeroports de Paris (AdP), which is expected to value the firm at up to 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion).

* Spanish construction and road concessions group Sacyr Vallehermoso raises its stake in France's Eiffage to 32.1 percent and its voting stake to 33.3 percent, the limit before it has to make a takeover bid.

Infrastructure M&A to stay strong- Allen & Overy

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The lure of infrastructure will stay strong in 2008 as investors seek safe havens from the credit crunch and opportunities remain to invest in the sector, said law firm Allen & Overy on Tuesday.

With opportunities for acquisitions remaining in the UK water sector as well as new ones arising in European power and UK transport markets, potential bidders for infrastructure will find assets they can race each other to buy, said the law firm.

And as investors and lenders start to baulk at committing funds to traditional large buyouts as caution takes over in the wake of the recent credit crunch, they remain interested in funding infrastructure investors and their deals.

"In our market a number of things have not changed," said David Lee, a partner at Allen & Overy's London practice. "One is the continued ability of infrastructure funds to raise huge amounts of money. There is a real virtue in safety and investing in infrastructure, assuming narrowly-drawn criteria."

Infrastructure funds have built a following for buying low-risk, stable cash flow businesses, but some of the assets recently billed as infrastructure are more volatile, and risk leaving investors with headaches down the line.

Traditional infrastructure assets include privatised, regulated monopolies such as utilities and toll roads, necessities less susceptible to economic cycles and not as vulnerable to technological advances.

Among opportunities that remain for potential investors are UK water companies and European power companies such as those in Germany, as unbundling of supply and distribution assets could lead to some coming on to the market.

U.S. opportunities include investment in infrastructure such as roads as the U.S. transport system seeks new investment, they added.

And as such opportunities free up, more and more funds are interested in the area.

Sovereign funds such as Singapore's GIC, Bahrain's Arcapita and others Middle East investors buoyed by the high price of oil are also entering the sphere as part of the groups on investors investing in assets..

"We'll see more sovereign funds taking a prominent role in these consortia," said Lee.