These are strange times for investors, particularly against the backdrop of the global pandemic. If you are looking to deploy capital, what should you do? One trend to be aware of is that more private capital is finding its way into infrastructure. “Activity-wise, we’ve seen a number of investors either make their maiden allocations to infrastructure or increase their exposures,” explains Hillary Ripley, senior director at First Sentier Investors. “In particular, we’ve observed that investors are expanding their core infrastructure allocations — likely a function of current conditions and the expectation that interest rates will remain low for an extended period.”

i3 held its first digital Editorial Advisory Board meeting in November, connecting members from across the globe for web-based discussions. The i3 board is comprised of institutional investors, including pension plan sponsors, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds and investment managers, consultants and elected officials from Europe, Canada, the United States, Asia and Australia.

Drew Campbell, i3 senior editor, recently discussed Brazil’s upcoming transmission asset auctions, scheduled for Dec. 17, with the country’s electricity regulatory agency, ANEEL.

Investors have fixed a cold eye upon a niche segment of the warehousing sector. Specifically, cold storage, where demand has been increasing as online grocery sales have been booming in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s the good news: This chilly wind blowing through investor portfolios is expected to be an abiding one, as the industrial cold-storage sector will see sustained demand for the warehousing and distribution of refrigerated and frozen food from major grocery retailers.

As the calendar turned to 2020, the global fund finance market — largely made up of subscription financing — was estimated to be approximately $600 billion, with more than 70 active lenders, and was increasingly used by all private capital funds on an annualized basis. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has affected the fund finance market. This article summarizes the level of impact felt by the fund finance market and how it responded over the course of 2020.

According to IREI’s FundTracker database, infrastructure fundraising in third quarter 2020 was on par with second quarter, with seven funds raising nearly $16 billion. In second quarter, eight funds raised more than $13 billion. This comes after more than $80 billion was raised by 22 funds in fourth quarter 2019 and first quarter 2020 combined.

Senior and mezzanine infrastructure debt have experienced significant growth over the past decade, and they now form an important part of institutional investors’ portfolios. The European market makes up around 90 percent of the senior funds raised over the past five years, whereas North American–focus funds dominate the mezzanine market. Prior to the global financial crisis (GFC), infrastructure financing was predominately provided by banks. Infrastructure debt as an institutional asset class emerged to fill the gap left by banks that were hit with higher capital charges, making it difficult for them to make long-term loans.

GLIO moderated a listed infrastructure virtual panel in mid-October. On the panel were Peter Hobbs — managing director, head of private markets with bfinance; Matt Bushby — managing director, head of infrastructure business development, RARE Infrastructure; David Bentley — founder and partner, ATLAS Infrastructure; Chris Holmes — partner, Foresight Group, and co-leader of the JLEN fund. Much of the discussion centered on a recent investor survey on infrastructure allocations. Some of the key questions posed to the panel and their answers follow.