Exclusive: Antin boosts senior bench with raft of promotions

Antin Infrastructure Partners has bolstered its senior ranks shortly after deploying yet another chunk of its second fund, Infrastructure Investor has learnt.

The Paris- and London-based firm has promoted Mélanie Biessy, Stéphane Ifker and Angelika Schöchlin to the newly created position of senior partner. Simon Soder, who joined Antin from Macquarie two years ago, has been promoted to partner.

Biessy, who keeps her responsibilities as chief operating officer, has been with Antin since the firm’s inception in 2007. Her remit includes overseeing all legal, tax, finance, fund administration, compliance and human resources matters.

Ifker, who joined in 2008, is a former managing director of Rothschild Debt Advisory Group. He sits on the board of Antin Solar, Andasol 1&2, oil storage group Pisto and telecoms mast business FPS Towers, all of which are held in Antin’s €1.1 billion Fund I, as well as UK pipeline CATS and fibre optic network operator Eurofiber, which form part of the €2 billion Fund II.

He also held a board seat in Porterbrook, the rolling stock lessor divested by Fund I alongside iCON Infrastructure, Deutsche Bank and OPTrust in 2014.

Schöchlin joined in 2010, having previously worked for Goldman Sachs and Terra Firma. Sitting on the board of Fund I’s Westerleigh and Fund II’s Amedes – respectively a crematorium operator and a lab tests provider – she was the lead partner on Antin’s acquisition of INICEA, France’s largest independent chain of psychiatric clinics, which the firm announced two weeks ago.

The deal was the fifth by Fund II. Antin and its co-investors have now deployed almost €2 billion since the vehicle closed less than two years ago.