UBS to launch infra debt initiative 2

The Swiss banking group is the latest organisation to target this increasingly popular investment space. Internal hire Tommaso Albanese will spearhead the effort.

UBS will become the latest firm to launch a new infrastructure debt initiative, following the likes of Macquarie, BlackRock and Allianz into this increasingly popular segment of the infrastructure investment market. 

Tommaso Albanese will transfer from the investment banking arm of UBS to the global asset management division’s infrastructure and private equity (I&PE) team. 

Within this team, which is headed by Paul Moy, the infrastructure debt push will be mapped out. Further details on the initiative were not available at the time of publication. 

Albanese was previously vice chairman of the investment bank’s global capital markets division in London, a role he had held since 2010. Prior to joining UBS, he was European co-head of the global capital markets division at Morgan Stanley. 

In taking up his new role, Albanese will continue to be an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, a position he has held since 2007. 

A whole afternoon session dedicated to infrastructure debt was held at Infrastructure Investor’s Berlin Summit 2013 earlier this week. Around 500 delegates heard panellists express the view that managed accounts are currently proving a more favoured way of accessing the asset class than blind pools.