Exclusives

The Singapore-based real estate investment manager has made its first senior hire to lead its infrastructure investing activities in Asia.

The £400m fund is expected to ‘act as a catalyst’ for charging infrastructure, attendees at the Renewable Energy Forum, part of our Global Summit, in Berlin, were told.

Vittorio Lacagnina will join the Swiss firm in June after spending more than three years at the Australian fund manager and establishing its NY office.

The latest instalment of the firm’s Global Infrastructure programme will eye 40% direct deals and 60% primary and secondary fund investments.

The vehicle is set to be launched after the manager closes on its debut Americas strategy, which has so far garnered $550m – surpassing its original $500m target.

The firm buys 50% of the Canadian company and will help develop its $150m pipeline of projects in Vancouver and Toronto.

Andrew Claerhout spent 13 years at the Canadian pension and the last four-and-a-half as head of its C$18.9bn infrastructure programme.

The sale has netted Partners Group a 3.2x blended gross return following a $250m investment in 2014. It had invested in the Japanese platform alongside Equis Energy. The Swiss firm divested its stake in Japan Solar to a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners.

Industry veteran Jesús Olmos, who joined the private equity firm a decade ago, is leaving at the end of April.

The firm’s third and largest vehicle of its kind is targeting capital from domestic institutional investors.