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II 100: Our methodology

The 2021 II 100 ranking is based on the amount of infrastructure direct investment capital raised by firms between 1 January 2016 and 31 August 2021.

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Definitions

Infrastructure

The definition of infrastructure investing, for the purposes of the Infrastructure Investor 100, means committing equity capital toward tangible, physical assets, whether existing (brownfield) or development-phase (greenfield) that are expected to exhibit stable, predictable cashflows over a long-term investment horizon.

The investors need not seek to own the assets in perpetuity and may exit them, realising a capital gain and generating an internal rate of return for themselves or their end-investors. However, they must primarily dedicate their investment programmes towards the pursuit of assets and projects that exhibit cashflow stability and predictability, and cannot be counted if they have made large one-off investments in the asset class on an opportunistic basis. There will certainly be grey areas with regard to these parameters, but Infrastructure Investor will take pains to ensure that the capital counted for the purposes of the ranking will fall within our definition of infrastructure to the furthest extent possible.

Capital raised

This means capital definitively committed to an infrastructure direct investment programme. In the case of a fundraising, it means the fund has had a final or official interim close after 1 January, 2016. You may count the full amount of a fund if it has a close after this date. And you may count the full amount of an interim close (a real one, not a ‘soft-circle’) that has occurred recently, even if no official announcement has been made. We also count capital raised through co-investment vehicles.

What counts?

Structures:

  • Limited partnerships
  • Open-end vehicles (capital must be raised within the specified dates)
  • Co-investment funds
  • Separate accounts
  • Capital raised by infrastructure managers that happen to be publicly traded
  • Seed capital and GP commitment

Strategies:

  • Core
  • Core-plus
  • Value-add
  • Opportunistic
  • Existing assets (brownfield), development-phase assets (greenfield) or a mix of both

What does not count?

  • Expected capital commitments
  • Contributions from sponsoring entities
  • Capital raised for funds of funds