Credit Suisse has reorganised its investment banking division to include a team that will focus on infrastructure, according to an internal memo seen by Infrastructure Investor.
The memo, from David Miller and Malcolm Price, senior members of Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking and Capital Markets group, said the lending giant has formed the Global Infrastructure, Utility and Renewables Group in response to a growing number of infrastructure funds being raised, which according to Infrastructure Investor data totaled $93.9 billion last year.
“Infrastructure was the fastest growing asset class in 2019…and continues to be of strategic importance for IBCM,” Miller and Price wrote in the memo.
The new division is a “re-branding” and an expansion of the Global Power & Renewable Group.
A spokesman for Credit Suisse confirmed the memo and told Infrastructure Investor that the reorganisation is to “centralise” the way Credit Suisse covers infrastructure, which was previously covered by different parts of the bank.
Jonathon Kaufman, the previous managing director of the power and renewables group in the Americas at Credit Suisse, will head the GIUR group, according to the memo. He’s joined by managing directors Michael Comisarow and Luke Gorton.
The GIUR will advise on mergers and acquisitions, debt raising services and project sponsorship, the spokesman said.
Recent infrastructure deals in which Credit Suisse participated include acting as a financial sponsor to IFM Investors’ $10.3 billion acquisition of midstream company Buckeye Partners in May; leading loan syndicates for Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ and GIC‘s $8.4 billion acquisition of rail company Genesee & Wyoming; and the $14.3 billion take-private of broadband company Zayo Group by EQT Partners and Digital Colony Partners.