RiskMetrics Group has just published a new report, Infrastructure Funds: Managing, Financing and Accounting. Infrastructure as an asset class has commanded increasing attention from investors and the financial press over the last few years. Major asset sales in the UK - most notably of ports and water utilities such as Thames Water - and ongoing attention on road infrastructure in the United States and Europe, has been met with increased competition for assets, not from 'trade buyers' (such as utility companies) but from investment banks and asset managers. The asset manager model for infrastructure, where a sponsoring manager - usually but not always an investment bank - acquires assets and then on-sells them into a separate fund or publicly traded entity but retains management rights - was pioneered in Australia.

Even as the managed infrastructure model has grown in popularity, at least among potential and actual asset managers, there are some signs of investor unease with the existing model. At the basis of these concerns is the unique governance structure that has emerged among publicly traded infrastructure vehicles

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Posted by dcjaya at April 4, 2008 7:55 PM