Managers seek backing for buyouts from failed Babcock

Teams at Babcock & Brown, the failed Australian-listed infrastructure investor, are courting financiers to back a series of management buyouts.

The fund manager, which went into bankruptcy on Friday, has a number of well-run divisions in Europe. Giles Frost and Hugh Blaney, directors who are based in London, are thought to be interested in buying the company's public-private partnerships arm.

Antonino Lo Bianco, Babcock's European head of infrastructure, is believed to be seeking backing to purchase both the European infrastructure and wind farm funds.

A source close to the three men said: "Some bits of Babcock & Brown still have real value, so these guys are trying to buy them."

New Zealand-based debtors voted down a restructuring plan last week in a move that in effect sank the company. Senior creditors are owed approaching A$4bn (£2.1bn), though lead banks still run operating group Babcock & Brown International, which will run down a series of investments over the next two to three years.

The firm was founded by Jim Babcock and George Brown in 1977. The business started in San Francisco and opened in Sydney five years later. Mr Babcock quit the company last year,