Esteban Duarte and Ambereen Choudhury

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank by assets, is seeking as much as $5 billion for its first infrastructure fund as the company targets utility and airport assets, three people with knowledge of the plan said.

The bank, which started the Citi Infrastructure Investors fund in May, initially sought about $3 billion, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the plans are private. New-York-based Citigroup raised about $1.3 billion for the first close of the fund in December, two of the people said.

Securities firms are looking to satisfy investors' appetite for investments in toll roads, airports, and ports, which typically provide predictable revenue even when economies sour. Credit Suisse Group, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS AG are among banks which started such funds in the past two years as the pace of infrastructure mergers almost doubled to $340 billion between 2005 and 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Posted by dcjaya at April 7, 2008 2:09 PM