Infrastructure is an asset class that emerged in the mid-1990s and has continued to gain greater acceptance from institutional investors over time. The market is now over $100 billion strong in terms of capital raised per year, with more than 100 funds closed annually.

The Omicron COVID-19 variant has rattled governments, markets and scientists around the world since its emergence in November. In the final weeks of 2021, Omicron leapfrogged Delta as the dominant virus strain worldwide.

As the infrastructure investment market matures, the number of funds and managers offering products to investors has matured with it. Global diversified funds have long been a mainstay in the market, but now specialist funds have a growing role to play in investor portfolios.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or “IIJA” (P.L. 117-58) passed on a bipartisan basis in both the House and Senate and was signed by President Biden one month ago today, on Nov. 15, 2021. One could have assumed that federal agencies would begin allocating the new funding and commence implementation of the IIJA as soon as it became effective.

Investing to meet sustainable investment goals has become a mainstay strategy after a decade of trending, and recently, the market has grown even more popular, as economies speed the transition to renewable sources of energy and sustainable development.

A new report published by real assets specialist Alpha Real Capital has found that over the next two years, 58 percent of U.K. pension schemes — which collectively manage some £143.6 billion (€171.7 billion) of assets — believe their counterparts will increase their allocation to real estate investment vehicles offering a social benefit.