In a survey of infrastructure investors, the United Kingdom ranks third for countries with the most potential in the next five years despite looming Brexit.
The 2019 edition of the EDHEC Infrastructure Institute survey, conducted on behalf of the G20, shows Brexit has barely impacted the United Kingdom’s top investment destination status for infrastructure investors.
More than 300 respondents, including 130 asset owners such as large pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds, representing $10 trillion in assets under management, took the 2019 EDHEC/GIH survey that closed last week. This is the largest, most representative survey of infrastructure investors globally.
Despite the looming Brexit deadline on March 29, 2019, respondents ranked the United Kingdom as the third market with the most potential for private infrastructure investment in the next five years (after the United States and Australia and ahead of France) out of more than 20 advanced infrastructure markets. The United Kingdom ranked second in the 2018 edition of the survey.
Frederic Blanc-Brude, director of EDHECinfra said, “This is a very strong signal: long-term investors continue to believe in the credibility of the U.K. infrastructure sector, the viability of the British economy in the medium term, and the creditworthiness of its government.”
He added, “Perhaps 'no deal' is a good deal for infrastructure investors. This survey combines the opinions of large, sophisticated institutional investors that have to take a view on post-Brexit U.K. Together, the asset owners alone represent more than 10 percent of global assets under management. The U.K. has long been one of the most active markets for infrastructure investment and represents one third of the EDHECinfra Broad Market Equity Index Universe of unlisted infrastructure companies.”
The 2019 EDHEC/Global Infrastructure Hub Investor Survey will be published in April 2019.
