Early numbers are in for infrastructure private investment funds closing in first quarter 2018, and they look ... a bit anemic. At this time last year, we were looking at $30.9 billion raised by the nine funds that closed in the first quarter of 2017. Today, we are seeing just $10.6 billion raised by five funds that closed in the first quarter of 2018.

We need to be a bit careful with our predictions because we are looking at very early numbers, but we might well be seeing the start of a down year in fundraising.

If 2018 ends up bringing in less capital than 2017, it will be the continuation of a pattern going back to at least 2013, where even numbered years are down, and odd numbered years are up.

This “First Look” edition is usually where I like to extrapolate out for the year and estimate how much capital will be raised based on the percentage of capital raised in the first quarter in previous years. Unfortunately, this does not work for infrastructure be