First State beefs up London team

First State Investments, which is part of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has hired three infrastructure professionals to its European direct infrastructure team in London.

Volker Haussermann has joined as a director from Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Infrastructure Europe, where he was a vice president responsible for identifying, analysing and implementing investment opportunities and for the on-going management of businesses.

At First State, Haussermann will have origination, investment and asset management responsibilities. His past career includes 14 years with EnBW, the German energy company, in addition to six years in the financial sector.

Two further hires see Batiste Ogier join as a senior executive from KPMG Corporate Finance with a focus on the utilities and energy sectors, and Mats Hope become an executive focusing on transaction execution and fund management having moved from UBS Investment Bank.

In a recent fourth round of fundraising, First State’s European Diversified Infrastructure Fund collected an additional €600 million to bring the total raised so far to approximately €1.3 billion.

The firm, which now has 14 infrastructure professionals in Europe, has 12 offices around the world. In Australia, where it has 15 infrastructure professionals based in Sydney, it is known as Colonial First State Global Asset Management.