Candès makes partner in InfraVia team boost

French fund manager InfraVia has boosted its team with the hire of Aloe Private Equity chief financial officer Ludovic Both, while promoting Bruno Candès to partner.  

Both, who joins InfraVia as asset manager, has 15 years of experience in a variety of roles covering corporate finance, controlling, audit, reporting and accounting management. Prior to his time at Aloe Private Equity, he worked for the likes of Siemens, Viventures Partners and Alcatel Telecom.  

At the same time, the French fund manager has promoted a number of existing employees. Chief among them is investment director Bruno Candès – who joined InfraVia in 2012 – who is now a partner. Candès previously founded Canadian fund manager Fiera Axium and has 15 years of infrastructure experience under his belt.

Gabriel Gauthier and Frederic Long – who have been with InfraVia respectively since 2009 and 2010 – were also promoted to investment directors.  

InfraVia is out in the market raising its second, €400 million infrastructure fund, having already held a first, €150 million close on it last July. The fund will target the European mid-cap infrastructure market.  

In a February interview with Infrastructure Investor, Vincent Levita, president of InfraVia, and Candès outlined the competitive advantages of the mid-cap space – less competition, better entry prices and more manageable risk – when compared to large-cap.  

“We are seeing the development of the infrastructure asset class with large global funds and large investors going direct, which is making the large-cap space very competitive. Of course, there are other funds operating in our space. There are three or four people with the same vision as us, but the competition doesn’t drive us to places where we don’t want to go – which nowadays is our concern with large cap,” argued Levita.  

*To read the full interview with Levita and Candès, please click here.