Monthly Releases: a new batch of infraMetrics data is released on the tenth working day of each month. This includes
– Market indices [link] – Investor Peer Group benchmarks [link]

Quarterly releases: quarterly computations are released on the tenth working day of the first month of each quarter, including for:
– Infrastructure Fund Benchmarks [link] – Deal and asset valuation analytics [link] – AssetSearch data [link] – TICCS® Research Data [link]

TCFD-Aligned Climate Metrics for Infrastructure Investors

Climate reporting aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidelines is rapidly transitioning into a requirement for investors worldwide. This poses difficulties for portfolios that include infrastructure investment and other privately owned assets, primarily due to the scarcity of accurate and comparable data. As investors wrestle with these urgent disclosure requirements, they are also under growing pressure to deepen their understanding of the impacts of physical risks of climate change on their infrastructure and private asset portfolios, as both regulatory and market forces demand more accurate risk assessments. In this webinar,  Nishtha Manocha, Senior Research Engineer, PhD, and Abhishek Gupta, Associate Director & Head of infraMetrics Product Development at EDHEC Infra & Private Assets will examine both the challenges and potential solutions to assist investors in fulfilling their regulatory obligations while gaining a more comprehensive understanding of climate risks within their portfolios.

Key Talking Points

• Regulatory drivers: TCFD-aligned reporting is mandatory in an increasing range of key jurisdictions and will be further reinforced by adoption of ISSB’s climate reporting standards by the word’s securities regulators. How is the regulatory picture evolving and what are the key requirements and differences across markets for investors?
• Challenges in tackling GHG emissions: What are the practical TCFD-related challenges for infrastructure and private equity investors vs listed equities, given fragmented information follows typically available to limited partners? What are the current options and methodologies for assessing the current and future GHG emissions across all scopes for different types of unlisted assets, and what are the drawbacks and barriers that investors are facing?
• Physical risks in focus: While TCFD recommendations require disclosure relating to physical risk, further granularity is required – and not just for regulatory reasons. The very nature of extreme weather events that can impact physical assets across geographies defies traditional risk management approaches. How do these challenges manifest for infrastructure and private assets?
• The way forward: While climate reporting undoubtedly requires heavy lifting for LPs, effective solutions are already emerging for even the most challenging asset classes. TCFD allows for modelled approaches, enabling benchmarks to play a key role in understanding and comparing the climate risks of even the most diverse portfolios. EDHEC’s experts present solutions to help investors address not only present climate reporting requirements, but also physical risk assessments and scenario analysis looking forward to 2030 and 2050.

Join us on 1^st November, 9:00am (GMT), for this webinar to gain valuable insights and strategies for effectively navigating climate reporting challenges.

Register here.

Monthly Releases: a new batch of infraMetrics data is released on the tenth working day of each month. This includes
– Market indices [link] – Investor Peer Group benchmarks [link]

Quarterly releases: quarterly computations are released on the tenth working day of the first month of each quarter, including for:
– Infrastructure Fund Benchmarks [link] – Deal and asset valuation analytics [link] – AssetSearch data [link] – TICCS® Research Data [link]

Infrastructure is now a key part of many investors’ core strategy. The successful emergence of this asset class opens many important questions of risk management for pension plans, insurers or private wealth managers. Beyond the Thames Water debacle in the UK, private asset valuation practices are focusing the attention of regulators from the SEC to the FCA. Meanwhile, in the wake of the LDI crisis, the role of infrastructure investment in asset-liability management remains an open question. Finally, the recent sharp increase in extreme weather events illustrates the imperative to measure and benchmark the climate risks of infrastructure assets.

EDHEC Infra Days 2023 is the annual conference of the EDHEC Infra & Private Assets Research Institute and will be the opportunity to present the latest research on these key topics and the application of this research in an industry context over two days.

The first day will focus on academic work on the climate, social and financial risks of unlisted equity and private infrastructure debt investments. Many investors remain exposed to a concentrated portfolio of infrastructure assets and these risks can be very material for them, even if they seem low on average in some cases. Better risk measurement is possible thanks to cutting edge research developed at the Institute in 2023. This research provides relevant, conceptual, robust facts and data to the infrastructure investment community.

The second day, infraMetrics day, will be dedicated to our data solutions, applications drawn from the Institute’s research. Here again, interaction with the infrastructure investing community will be a core part of the seven workshops devoted to use cases for the financial and extra-financial infrastructure data available on the infraMetrics platform.

Programme overview

Day 1
Infrastructure Day – The Imperative of Risk Management

MORNING SESSIONS: ESG, FROM MEASUREMENT TO MATERIALTY
What Materiality of ESG Risk in Infrastructure Investments?
> Single or double: the difference between reporting ESG and measuring materiality
> When is ESG information relevant for investors and why?
> Risk disclosures: from ESG risk metrics to audited accounts?

What ESG Risks Really Matter? The Social Acceptability of Infrastructure
> Measuring ESG risk through social acceptability measures
> The materiality of social acceptability in infrastructure investments
> Many ESG metrics are white noise, but some have predictive power

Climate Risk Measurement in Infrastructure
> Transition risk: the importance of robust emission estimates
> Physical risk: the imperative of granularity
> Climate scenarios and asset pricing: measuring climate risks in dollars

Between a Rock and the Climate: Extreme Climate Risks, -54% or Losing $600bn
> How physical risk could lead to large losses in some portfolios before 2050
> The large costs of a delayed transition for infrastructure investors
> Why measuring climate risks today allows managing them tomorrow

AFTERNOON SESSIONS: MEASURING FINANCIAL RISKS TO BETTER MANAGE THEM
The afternoon focuses on measuring risk and volatility in the value and returns of infrastructure investments and shows how this data is necessary for infrastructure to achieve its full potential in the portfolio.

Keynote: The Importance of Robust Risk Measurement in Private Infrastructure Investments

Measuring Extreme Risks in Infrastructure Investments
> Not so boring: the risks of infrastructure investments
> Defensive by nature: the drawdown of infrastructure assets in bad times
> Correlated or not? The time varying nature of the infrastructure risk premia

How Diversified is your Infrastructure Portfolio?
> Common risk factors across infrastructure segments
> How many investments are needed to achieve diversification?
> Diversifying the total portfolio – can infrastructure help?

Infrastructure as an investment solution
> The liability-friendliness of infrastructure
> From performance seeking to liability hedging
> Infrastructure for LDI

Lessons from the Thames Water Scandal
> You shall not make money: how regulation sent investors in the water sector the wrong message
> Safe and boring: the wrong approach to appraisals
> Tick Tock: how Thames was turned into a hand grenade

DAY 2 – infraMetrics Day

Indices and Benchmarks
> Capturing market dynamics with ESMA-regulated indices
> Customised portfolio and strategy benchmarks using TICCS
> Long-term Strategy Indices: investing across the cycle

Valuation Tools for Infrastructure Equity Investments
> What factors predict the market price of infrastructure companies
> Customising valuations: granular yet robust comparables
> Benchmarking cash flow forecasts with infraMetrics

infraMetrics for Debt Investors
> The perils of using the wrong inputs to value private infrastructure debt
> Credit spread dynamics: from patchy data to robust estimates of the market
> Measuring the performance of the asset class against IG corporate bonds

Asset-Level Data and Further Customising Comparables
> Data sourcing, cleaning and validation
> Revenue and cash flow forecasting
> Due diligence case study: a port in the UK

Climate Impact and Risk Data in infraMetrics
> The importance of improving data quality with emission models
> Benchmarking the climate impacts and risks of portfolios and strategies
> Building climate impact and risk proxies (Comps) for individual assets

TCFD Reporting and Beyond – A Customised Analysis of the Climate Risk of an Infrastructure Portfolio
> Service output and inputs from the investor
> Asset-level estimates of climate risk at the 2050 horizon
> Fund and portfolio level climate risk estimates and benchmarks

Credit Risk Analysis for Infrastructure Debt Investors
> Why measuring credit risk with observed default makes no sense
> Estimating and proxying credit risk in infrastructure project finance debt
> From PD to LGD, a predictive model of expected losses

InfraMetrics Demos on Equity, Debt and Climate Indices

FULL TWO-DAY PROGRAMME

DAY 2 – infraMetrics Day

The second day of the EDHEC Infra Days Conference – infraMetrics Day. It will be dedicated to our data solutions, applications drawn from the Institute’s research. Here again, interaction with the infrastructure investing community will be a core part of the seven workshops devoted to use cases for the financial and extra-financial infrastructure data available on the infraMetrics platform.

Workshop 1

Indices and Benchmarks

As the asset class has grown, it has become essential for direct investors, GPs and LPs to understand the dynamics of the market for unlisted infrastructure. Are valuations going up or down? Most investors are aware of where the market was 12 to 18 months ago, but often lack a contemporaneous view that would give them a forward-looking view of their investment case for infrastructure. Will infrastructure be replaced by bonds now that yields are durably higher? These questions and many more cannot be answered without representative market indices and benchmarks that capture market dynamics. Meanwhile, long term strategy benchmarks that look beyond the rate cycle can also be built for investors who want to hold infrastructure investments in perpetuity or to maturity. This workshop will present the indices and benchmark product of the infraMetrics platform and include use cases including:

> Capturing market dynamics with ESMA-regulated indices
> Customised portfolio and strategy benchmarks using TICCS
> Long-term Strategy Indices: investing across the cycle

Speakers:

• Frederic Blanc-Brude, Director, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Abhishek Gupta, Associate Director – Solutions, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Roundtable: use cases and industry applications of infraMetrics indices and benchmarks

Workshop 2

Valuation Tools for Infrastructure Equity Investments

As infrastructure becomes a larger and more omnipresent asset class, the requirement to have good data for frequent valuations increases all the time. Whether it is to transact in the secondary fund market, value pension rights or buyouts in DB funds and member investment choices in DC funds, for prudential and fiduciary reasons, the accurate and mark to market valuation of infrastructure equity investments is increasingly sensitive. The valuation tools of the infraMetrics platform allow building valuation metrics using the market method or the income method by granular segment and to customise them by asset-level risk factor exposures like leverage, size or profits and country. These valuation metrics are computed using large samples and a representative selection of assets, allowing users to access robust, yet granular data to build their own comps or benchmark acquisition or exit values. This workshop will present the unlisted infrastructure equity valuation tools of the infraMetrics platform including the following topics:

> What factors predict the market price of infrastructure companies

> Customising valuations: granular yet robust comparables

> Benchmarking cash flow forecasts with infraMetrics

Speaker:

• Abhishek Gupta, Associate Director – Solutions, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Roundtable: use cases and industry applications of infraMetrics valuation tools

Workshop 3

infraMetrics for Debt Investors

Infrastructure debt has become a very attractive asset class and the opportunity for investors to get a different kind of exposure to infrastructure. However, the opacity of origination practices and the virtual absence of secondaries create valuation challenges for investors. This workshop will present the private debt indices, and debt valuation analytics product of the infraMetrics platform and focus on the following use cases.

> The perils of using the wrong inputs to value private infrastructure debt

> Credit spread dynamics: from patchy data to robust estimates of the market

> Measuring the performance of the asset class against IG corporate bonds

Speaker:

• Riazul Islam, Senior Researcher in Finance, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Roundtable: use cases and industry applications of infraMetrics credit spread proxying and benchmarking tools

Workshop 4  

Asset-Level Data and Further Customising Comparables

InfraMetrics is built using a bottom-up approach, including the documentation and mapping of the investible universe according to TICCS, the selection of a sample of individual firms that are analysed in highly granular details at the level of the cash flow statement, allowing revenue and dividend predictions to be made at the firm level, and valuation analyses to be made for each equity and debt investment in the firm using a firm-specific and instrument-specific discount rate. This workshop will present the asset-level data that underpins the indices, benchmarks and valuation tools of the infraMetrics platform, including:

> Data sourcing, cleaning and validation

> Revenue and cash flow forecasting

> Due diligence case study: a port in the UK

Speakers:

• Frederic Blanc-Brude, Director, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Tim Whittaker, Research Director, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Roundtable: discussion on the infraMetrics asset level data

Workshop 5

Climate Impact and Risk Data in infraMetrics

The climate and impacts and risks of infrastructure assets are a key point of focus but investors often lack the full picture of their level of impact or exposure to climate risks. While GPs or LPs may have carbon emission estimates for their own assets, they are not necessarily the result of a consistent model and cannot be compared to an industry average to understand the extent of the transition risk exposure. Likewise, physical risk estimates are often simplified to a ‘point on a map’ estimation and do not take into account the granularity of the terrain or the type of damage that different hazards can cause to an asset. Finally, climate data about today’s transition and physical risks are not very useful without a forward-looking view and a forward-looking value of these risks. This workshop will present the climate impact and risk metrics of the infraMetrics platform, including:

> The importance of improving data quality with emission models
> Benchmarking the climate impacts and risks of portfolios and strategies
> Building climate impact and risk proxies (Comps) for individual assets

Speaker:

Darwin Marcelo, Project Director, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets

Roundtable: use cases and industry applications of infraMetrics climate data

Workshop 6

TCFD Reporting and Beyond – A Customised Analysis of the Climate Risk of an Infrastructure Portfolio

Investors all need to report for TCFD by 2025 at the latest, but they seldom feel comfortable with the estimates of climate risk and impact that they have access to, including scenario-based valuations of infrastructure assets and benchmarks of their exposures to climate risks. With data from the investor’s portfolio about risk profile and the location of each asset, infraMetrics can be used to produce a dedicated report that covers the key metrics needed for TCFD at the asset, fund and portfolio levels. This information also allows investors to begin to manage the risks created by climate change for infrastructure investors, including the possibility of being unknowingly concentrated in highly exposed assets in some scenarios. This workshop will present the infraMetrics climate impact and risk estimation service, including:

> Service output and inputs from the investor
> Asset-level estimates of climate risk at the 2050 horizon
> Fund and portfolio level climate risk estimates and benchmarks

Speakers:

• Frederic Blanc-Brude, Director, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Darwin Marcelo, Project Director, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Roundtable: use cases and industry applications of infraMetrics climate data estimation service

Workshop 7

Credit Risk Analysis for Infrastructure Debt Investors

Infrastructure debt is typically of investment grade, but this credit quality creates a dearth of observable default events that could be used to measure credit risk statistically, as it is done in corporate debt. However, it is possible to go beyond these approaches by developing cash flow-based models of default that have predictive power and can be used to produce robust measures of default frequencies and loss given default. This workshop will present the credit risk analytics available in the infraMetrics platform, including:
> Why measuring credit risk with observed default makes no sense
> Estimating and proxying credit risk in infrastructure project finance debt
> From PD to LGD, a predictive model of expected losses
Speakers:

• Abhishek Gupta, Associate Director – Solutions, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Riazul Islam, Senior Researcher in Finance, EDHEC Infra & Private Assets
• Roundtable: use cases and industry applications of infraMetrics credit risk data

FULL TWO-DAY PROGRAMME

Monthly Releases: a new batch of infraMetrics data is released on the tenth working day of each month. This includes
– Market indices [link] – Investor Peer Group benchmarks [link]

Quarterly releases: quarterly computations are released on the tenth working day of the first month of each quarter, including for:
– Infrastructure Fund Benchmarks [link] – Deal and asset valuation analytics [link] – AssetSearch data [link] – TICCS® Research Data [link]