As the world has bounced back from the recession, most asset classes have seen their fundraising times steadily decline. Infrastructure, however, is living a different story. A graph showing the average time infrastructure funds have taken to close each year since 2012 looks something like the mouth of the bear in The Revenant. The average marketing time is up one year, down the next, up again, down again and so on.

Overall, the mean time in the market for all funds that closed between 2013 and 2016 was 16.3 months. Funds that closed in 2013 had been in the market an average of 17 months before closing. Those that held a final closing in 2014 were only open for 15.9 months, on average. It took a little longer for those closing last year — 16.2 months, on average. Only two funds have closed so far in 2016. One took six months; the other took 12 months.

Although it appears that an infrastructure manager can expect to take fewer than 17 months to reach its maxi