Infrastructure Investor Fundraising Review

Past performance may not be indicative of the future. This could be the case for unlisted infrastructure fundraising in quarter one this year. Data collected by Infrastructure Investor shows that unlisted infrastructure fundraising has got off to a weaker than expected start in 2014, after a record fundraising year in 2013. $7.3 billion was raised by nine funds in Q1 2014, representing a 40 percent drop in a quarter on quarter comparison from 2013.

To add to the competition, more funds have entered the market – 185 unlisted infrastructure funds are currently raising capital as compared to 178 at the end of 2013.

Although the fundraising climate so far in 2014 might look gloomy, the Q1 figure still fares better than the equivalent periods in 2011 and 2012. Indeed, it might be too early to forecast that 2014 will be a year of disappointment for fundraisers; infrastructure fundraising has been on an upward trend since 2011 and investors’ appetite is increasing.  

Our conversations with investors indicate positive sentiment towards the asset class. Leading the way is the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan, which made its first ever concrete alternatives allocation this quarter, choosing infrastructure as its first step. We feature some investors looking to allocate to infrastructure later in this edition. We also have a chance to interview Frank Amberg, Head of Private Equity & Infrastructure for MEAG MUNICH ERGO Asset Management GmbH, to gain his insights into the industry. 

One thing that we do differently in this edition is that we have included deals data (courtesy of our sister database, IIAssets) for the first time.  It paints a positive picture. A grand total of $1.1 trillion has been invested into infrastructure deals globally since 2010. 

Despite a slow start, we continue to be optimistic about the asset class in 2014.