IFM hires Macquarie pros, eyes additional investments

Industry Funds Management has hired two Macquarie executives to lead its fundraising and business development efforts in New York and London ahead of a push to make “additional infrastructure investments” around the world, the firm said Monday.

Macquarie senior managing director Brian Clarke joined IFM as executive director of business development for North America, based in New York. Macquarie senior vice president Annabel Wiscarson joined IFM in London for the same position, focused on the UK and European markets.

Brian Clarke

At Macquarie, Clarke helped lead an international effort to offer specialised investment products to institutional investors, including infrastructure-focused investment vehicles, according to an IFM statement. Wiscarson was in charge of Macquarie’s institutional fundraising for infrastructure, private equity and other alternative funds in Scandinavian countries. She had been with the firm since 2002, when she joined Macquarie as a business analyst, according to Macquarie's website.

At IFM, they will both focus on managing IFM’s fundraising, business development and building relationships with investors and asset consultants in North America, continental Europe and the UK, IFM said in a statement.

Annabel Wiscarson

The firm also hired a Melbourne-based executive, Umberto Mecchi, to serve as executive director for global marketing.

The hires are aimed “to support the firm’s strategic plans to make additional infrastructure investments in North America, Europe and Australia”, IFM said.

The Melbourne-based asset manager has already had a busy year on the investment front. In November, IFM was a 27 percent shareholder in a consortium that won an auction for the Port of Brisbane for A$2.1 billion (€1.5 billion; $2.1 billion).

Earlier in the year, the firm acquired a 40 percent interest in 50Hertz Transmission, a German electric grid operator, as part of an €810 million deal that gave its partner Belgian transmission operator Elia the remaining 60 percent. In July IFM also agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in Dalkia Polska, a Polish supplier of heat and electricity, in a deal that values the firm at $1.3 billion.

The Australian asset manager, owned by a group of 35 Australian pension funds, has been investing in infrastructure since 1995. IFM has invested $8.5 billion in infrastructure across 43 transactions, according to its statement.

Including its private equity, debt and listed equity portfolios, IFM manages over $27.6 billion on behalf of its investors.