AXA IM’s infra team grows with second principal hired

The real assets division of AXA Investment Managers has expanded its infrastructure equity team for the second time since May with the hiring of Julien Gailleton as a principal.

Gailleton joins the firm’s Paris office with a mandate to lead origination and investment executions in OECD infrastructure markets. His focus will be on the transportation, energy, water, digital and social infrastructure sectors.

Gailleton previously spent seven years as a senior investment director for CDC Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Caisse des dépôts, investing in brownfield and greenfield energy, transportation and telecom projects. He also served on the boards of several infrastructure companies including Butendiek, Rhône Express, and Viaduc de Millau.

AXA’s real assets division, which manages over €70 billion in assets, has sought to strengthen its infrastructure investment team over the past year, hiring Mark Gilligan as the firm’s global head of infrastructure equity in 2016, and Jeff Woodward in May as another principal for its London office. Both Gailleton and Woodward report to Gilligan.

AXA IM, a subsidiary of French insurance giant AXA, had approximately €747 billion in assets under management as of 31 March 2017. More personnel shuffling at the firm includes the appointment last month of Chales Daulon du Laurens as global head of a client capital group for the firm’s real assets division.

Last November, AXA IM – Real Assets purchased a 42 percent stake in France’s A63 motorway operator from InfraRed Capital Partners in a joint venture with Crédit Agricole Assurances. The firm also reached a €730 million first close last November on a €1.5 billion European infrastructure debt fund it is currently raising.