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.  »