Infrastructure has become a key area of focus for institutional investors as they look to diversify their fixed income portfolios to access longer term, resilient credit opportunities for income-like returns. Within this asset class, infrastructure debt is on the rise as investment managers look to construct new debt vehicles: either to provide direct lending to infrastructure operators, to access well-established municipal bond markets, or to structure their own private lending programmes by issuing tranches of unlisted bonds. 

The demand for infrastructure funds remains evidently strong. Last year, these vehicles raised USD62.9 billion in aggregate based on figures provided by Preqin*. In Q1 2017, that number had already reached USD29.5 billion; nearly twice the amount raised in Q1 2016 (USD16 billion). 

From a structuring perspective, infrastructure funds are most frequently established as either a limited partnership or a limited company. Partnerships are the familiar vehicle for private funds, whereas companies will be used for listed vehicles.