In April 2011, Cohen & Steers published a white paper titled Listed Infrastructure: A Secular Investment Opportunity/An Emerging Asset Class, which provided a timely analysis of listed infrastructure markets. The following is a review of some of the paper’s main points, including recently announced government infrastructure sales, historical correlation between listed infrastructure and other asset classes, inflation and volatility, and emerging listed infrastructure structures.
Public to Private
Historically, governments have played a major role in financing infrastructure, but with the impact of the global recession, unfolding sovereign debt concerns and resulting financial constraints, they are relying more and more on private capital to drive infrastructure investments. The deteriorating trend in developed market balance sheets shows average debt to GDP risi