CORRECTED - INPP mulling capital hike

(Changes currencies in second and fifth paragraphs to GBP instead of euros)

* Capital increase could repay debt, fund acquisitions * Driven by share price close to net assets

* Has portfolio of 11 projects lined up

By Greg Roumeliotis, European Infrastructure Correspondent

AMSTERDAM, Nov 3 (Reuters) - International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP.L), the renamed listed infrastructure fund that was once run by troubled infrastructure group Babcock & Brown, said on Tuesday it was considering a capital increase.

INPP did not specify the size of the capital hike but spokeswoman Bianca Francis said proceeds would be used first to take out INPP's 100 million pounds debt facility and then fund its acquisition of new projects.

"INPP's investment adviser, Amber Fund Management, has now accumulated a portfolio of 11 projects with a total capital value of around 200 million pounds ($326 million), for which INPP has a right of first refusal," Francis said.

She added that, as INPP's share price was trading close to its net asset backing per share of 111.8 pence, directors have started thinking about options of raising more capital without having to issue shares at a discount.

INPP's shares were up 0.27 percent to 110 pence at 1307 GMT.

"Recent investments funded through the company's debt facility have projected returns in excess of the company's target level of return of 8 to 9 percent," INPP's chairman Keith Dorrian said in a statement.

INPP has drawn down 60 million pounds from a 100 million pound loan provided by Royal Bank of Scotland and National Australia Bank that is due in May 2011 and carries a fixed margin of 175 basis points over LIBOR, Francis said.

The management team has preserved the Babcock & Brown model whereby Amber, the spun-out asset manager of Babcock's public-private partnership (PPP) business, secures and readies projects for financing and then offers them first to INPP. [ID:nLU227798]

Apart from PPPs in Britain and Europe, the fund has recently been looking at other regulated assets, such as Ofgem's offshore transmission links. [ID:nLN537341] ($1=.6140 Pound) (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)