Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, which helped finance a $3.85 billion lease to privatize the Indiana Toll Road, aims to expand its infrastructure investment business in the United States.
Bill Owens, Colorado's former governor, and Dana Levenson, Chicago's former chief financial officer, now work for Royal Bank and have been assigned to advance those efforts.
"The market in the United States is in its very early days," Mr. Levenson said in an interview Tuesday in Washington.
While in office, Mr. Levenson negotiated the $1.8 billion lease of the Chicago Skyway toll road and $563 million lease of the Chicago Downtown Parking System to private investors, according to Royal Bank.
Mr. Owens, a Republican who helped privatize part of Denver's bus system and added express highway lanes for drivers willing to pay a toll, said U.S. infrastructure needs are greater than governments can afford to finance.
Congress should give states and cities the option to lease highways, airports, and other public assets to private investors and contract with them for new facilities, Mr. Owens said.
Royal Bank was among seven European banks that helped Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA of Madrid and Macquarie Bank Ltd. of Sydney gain control over the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road last year.
Royal Bank, the U.K's No. 2 bank by market value after HSBC Holdings PLC, advises and finances such deals. It does not have an infrastructure investment fund such as those managed by Macquarie or Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The U.S. trucking industry opposes privatizing highways because of the prospect of adding or raising tolls.
Some congressional Democrats, including House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar of Minnesota, say Congress needs to set parameters for how states enter long-term leases.
Mr. Owens said some opposition is to be expected given that infrastructure privatization is a newer phenomenon in the United States than it is in Europe or Australia.
"Congress doesn't need to try to keep local governments and state governments from being innovative," he said.
