Antin adds new partner, makes debut Fund III investment

Antin Infrastructure Partners has hired Kevin Genieser, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, as its new senior partner.

Genieser will be based in the French firm’s London offices and is expected to bolster Antin’s deal sourcing and execution capabilities, particularly in the energy space. Antin will be hoping Genieser can draw on 20 years of experience at Morgan Stanley, where he acted as group head of power and utilities in EMEA, as well as in his role as head of clean technology.

Mark Crosbie, Antin’s managing partner, said Genieser’s “experience and contacts will prove a great addition” to the team, citing personal experience of having known him for 16 years and working with him during Crosbie’s eight-year tenure as director of mergers and acquisitions at Centrica.

Antin’s only current investment in the power sector is its 99 percent interest in CATS, a North Sea gas pipeline and processing facility, bought for £847 million ($1.1 billion; €922.4 million) through the firm’s €2 billion second fund, now fully invested but thought to have significant capital for add-on investments. The company’s €1.1 billion maiden fund is close to being realised, with only port operator Euroports yet to be sold.

The hiring announcement follows the summer purchase of Kisimul, an educational institution in the UK focused on children with autism. The school has been bought from Five Arrows, a private equity investment arm of Rothschild, sources familiar with the transaction told Infrastructure Investor, and is the debut deal from Antin’s €3.6 billion third fund.

Antin senior partner Angelika Schochlin told an Infrastructure Investor roundtable last year of her surprise that so few investors are looking at social infrastructure, stating the need “to go beyond a reactive approach and have a vision of things before they happen”.