November 2017 Issue

From a volatility perspective, the UK has been the ‘gift that keeps on giving’ following events over the past 18 months. The Brexit vote forced the resignation of then Prime Minister David Cameron and plunged the country into deep uncertainty. Less than a year later, Cameron’s replacement, Theresa May, called an unexpected election in a […]

It was always going to require a superhuman effort for third-quarter infrastructure fundraising to beat its 2016 counterpart, but the amount by which it fell short still managed to astonish. Last year, 18 funds closed for a combined record-breaking $24.7 billion. However, this amount would have been $14 billion lighter if not for Brookfield Infrastructure […]

On the campaign trail he vowed to rebuild US infrastructure “on time, on budget”. He tapped one of the industry’s leading lights, GIP chairman Adebayo Ogunlesi, to join his (now defunct) business advisory council and his budget proposal in May called for $200 billion of federal spending over 10 years to be matched with $800 […]

A clean, beautiful mess President Donald Trump announced in October the “war on clean, beautiful coal” has ended with the Environmental Protection Agency beginning its rollback of the Clean Power Plan. That’s right. Clean, beautiful coal wins because the Clean Power Plan loses. EPA Administrator Scott Pruit said the plan imposed “devastating effects” on the […]

If last year hinted at the strength of the sector, this year confirmed it – with the eighth edition of our ranking of the world’s largest infrastructure investors showing managers sitting on more money than ever. It is the second year since we formally expanded it to 50 firms and 2017’s report shows an impressive […]

Talk about flogging a dead horse: PFI, arguably one of the UK’s most successful financial exports but thoroughly discredited in its home country for years, has been brought out for yet another public beating by yet another British politician. The perpetrator this time was shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who, at Labour’s recent conference, vowed to […]

With infrastructure funds having to adapt to a constantly changing market, Jamie Mehmood, RBS International’s newly appointed head of infrastructure and renewable energy funds and Ian Stocker, senior director and coverage lead for the sector, explain how this has affected managers’ financing needs and the value that banking partners can provide. Q: RBS International has […]

November is always an exciting month for us, as we get to unveil our ranking of the 50 largest investors in the asset class, the Infrastructure Investor 50. You can discover who came out on top – we won’t spoil it for you here – but what we will say is that the asset class […]

ANZ’s Craig Shortus, head of utilities and infrastructure for Australia, and Tsen Wong, director, utilities and infrastructure, institutional banking, tell us what steps Australia should take to improve its energy mix Among the consequences of the storm that cut power in Victoria late last year was Alcoa’s closure of one of two potlines at its […]

Anton Pil, managing partner of JPMorgan Asset Management’s $130 billion global alternatives business, tells Jordan Stutts the real story in US infrastructure is not the one stealing the headlines, but rather how monetary policy could deeply impact the asset class If you just stick to the headlines, then the big story this year in the […]

When a consortium teaming the Plenary Group and The Walsh Group reached a deal in 2014 with Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation to repair 558 structurally deficient bridges, the public-private partnership drew wide attention. For one, no project bundling this many assets had been undertaken in the US. The bridges are spread throughout Pennsylvania, a state […]

“In terms of low yield and too much liquidity chasing the same yield? Yes, absolutely,” Claus Fintzen, chief investment officer and head of infrastructure debt at Allianz Global Investors replies when asked whether infrastructure debt has turned ‘frothy’ in certain markets. His response echoes that of all the other professionals Infrastructure Investor interviewed for this […]

Opinion Portfolio manager, global listed infrastructure, Cohen & Steers Benjamin Morton The trend in 2017: if you don’t like the news, just say it’s fake. Further to the article EDHEC infra pleads for watchdog intervention on ‘fake infra’, published on 11 October, it appears this approach has crept into the investing world too. With the […]

Leisel Moorhead, a partner in the global infrastructure team at QIC, explains how ESG considerations were front and centre throughout the firm’s Port of Melbourne acquisition The October 2016 acquisition of the Port of Melbourne on a 50-year lease, in the Australian state of Victoria, by QIC and our consortium partners provides another opportunity for […]

Matthew Norman, global head of infrastructure for Crédit Agricole CIB, tells how the emergence of a European institutional debt market has altered the lending landscape, why the bank sees institutional investors as partners – not competitors – and discusses the opportunities offered by the core-plus sector. Q: Europe has historically been a very bank-centric infrastructure […]