in the news
EDHECinfra research is regularly featured in the mainstrean and professional press
Tania Tsoneva looks back at COVID’s impact on the transport sector and ahead at the trends and market forces that will shape it. Read the full article here. Susanna Rust has quoted some of the major UK investors who have published an open letter to the UK prime minister to express strong opposition to the possible inclusion of… After drawing both cheers and rebukes from within the finance industry, HSBC Asset Management’s suspended head of responsible investing has now caught the attention of academia. A presentation delivered by… Report identifies prevalence of renewable energy in portfolios, but strong future interest in data-related projects. Asset managers and owners plan to increase investment in renewable energy and social infrastructure over… Asset owners, such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, achieved the strongest risk-adjusted returns among a broader universe of institutional infrastructure investors in 2021, with North American pension funds… Suzanna Rust highlights the finding and facts from the new research note from the EDHECinfra, “The Cost of Capital of Brown Gas”, following the European Commission’s decision to include natural… John Ainger and Greg Ritchie provide some alternative views and feedback from the industry on the EU Commission decision to include gas and nuclear in the Green Taxonomy. They refer… Toll roads have recovered after the initial effects of COVID-19. Florence Chong reports on a surprisingly resilient sector. Read the full article here. They have been hit the hardest, but does a multi-billion-dollar takeover mark the start of a recovery for airports? Florence Chong reports. Read the full article here. Frédéric Blanc-Brude, director and CEO, and Abhishek Gupta, Associate Director and Head of Product Development at EDHECinfra, speak about the challenges infrastructure investors face and how using the right data… Frédéric Blanc-Brude, director and CEO, and Abhishek Gupta, Associate Director and Head of Product Development at EDHECinfra provided their expert commentaries on the evolution of the infrastructure asset class and… Christopher Niesche spoke with Abhishek Gupta, Head of Product Development at EDHECinfra, about infrastructure as a new asset class and the need for more data by the industry. “In the… Douglas Appell analyses the situation with Sydney airport that considers the third offer from a consortium of infrastructure investors and superannuation funds. In this article, he quotes Frederic Blanc-Brude, CEO… Sydney Airport, the target of a consortium of infrastructure managers and superannuation funds, is playing hard to get over pandemic valuations. Read the article in full here. The difficulty large asset owners face in balancing sometimes conflicting messages around infrastructure were discussed at length in an online roundtable hosted by Investment Magazine and EDHECinfra, titled: The evolution of infrastructure… As more super funds put money into infrastructure and as the government puts super returns under scrutiny, focus is turning to how these assets can be valued. Financial metrics and… Ben Hurley takes a closer look at the question of infrastructure valuation. He examines challenges the industry faces in the time of pandemic, and what can be done to overcome… DWS uses EDHECinfa data in their Alternative Research on Infrastructure, including index performance, revenue growth and total return rates, and more. See the full report here. Kelly Ng takes the view on the lack of a common language on green finance and incomplete data on climate risk characteristics of infrastructure assets. She quotes Ms Indranee, Second… Colin Leopold explains what could inflation and interest rate change mean for the infrastructure asset class. He thinks that the coming inflation could be the next big test in the… A recently released EDHECinfra and LTIIA (Long Term Infrastructure Investors’ Association) research paper entitled “The Volatility of Unlisted Infrastructure Investments” has been highlighted in The Pipeline – the start-the-week briefing… Daniel Kemp takes a long view at the benchmarks for unlisted infrastructure in light of the Your Future, Your Super reform proposed by The Australian government. MSCI vs EDHEC “One… Tony Boyd examines the relevance of the proposed unlisted infrastructure benchmark in light of the Australian federal government’s superannuation reforms. “EDHEC Infrastructure Institute has pinpointed several performance measurement issues relating to… Jennifer Bollen enquiries about the return of inflation and discusses with Frederic Blanc-Brude what it could mean for real assets. “Inflation is important for infrastructure investors for a different reason… Elena Johansson discovers the trends and initiatives around Sustainable Infrastructure investment, perspectives and barriers the asset class faces and the evolving opportunities that would help investors to assess the role… Ben Hurley highlights the importance of fair value in infrastructure investments with a focus on the situation in Australian superannuation funds. Investors face significant hurdles when measuring the performance of… Zak Bentley highlights the main points and views discussed during the Valuation Deep Dive event organized by Infrastructure Investor. “Speaking at Infrastructure Investors’ Global Passport session on valuations today, Frederic… Thought Leadership article in the new issue of IPE Real Assets, by Frederic Blanc-Brude. “New asset valuation technology and data opens an era of transparency and better risk management for… Richard Lowe highlights the findings of EDHECifra’s paper “Towards a Scientific Approach to ESG for Infrastructure Investors”. “The EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) comes into force next week, but… A new paper by EDHECInfra argues that selecting the right benchmark could completely change investors’ preferred asset allocation to infrastructure equity and debt. Asset allocation choices famously determine a significant… Infrastructure funds that market themselves as sustainable to EU investors will come under new rules from March, René Lavanchy reports. On 10 March, the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)… “Investors should recognise that the risk premia used to discount the future cash flows has increased for the troubled sector, say Frederic Blanc-Brude, director at EDHECinfra, and Tim Whittaker, associate… Kate Burges investigates whether Australia’s super funds are going to abandon low-risk strategies, including infrastructure investing, to boost their returns in light of the new performance regime. “Ross Israel, the… Richard Rowe highlights EDHECinfra’s findings from the case study “Unlisted Infrastructure Performance Contribution, Attribution & Benchmarking”. “The world’s largest infrastructure investors and fund managers outperform the wider market due to… Infrastructure debt continues to gain interest from long-term investors, particularly those in South Korea and Japan, reports Adalla Kim. Using EDHECinfra data (Broad market private infrastructure debt indices) Adalla provides… Justin Niessner takes a closer look on the impact COVID-19 has on the infrastructure investors. He states that conservative investors who trust infrastructure for its stability have received a rude… Zak Bentley highlights the findings of a publication from the EDHEC Infrastructure Institute entitled “The cost of capital in motorway concessions in France – For a modern approach to toll… Based on EDHECinfra paper, Canadian Investment Review outlines the main points raised in the Paper and highlights why infrastructure investors should abandon absolute return benchmarks. “Overall, it’s key for asset… In a new position paper entitled Infrastructure investors should abandon absolute return benchmarks, EDHECinfra argues there is no reason for investors in unlisted infrastructure to continue using absolute return or… Maha Khan Phillips and Christopher O’Dea discover how Top 100 Infrastructure Managers are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and their views on infrastructure investments in the longer term. They use… Rene Lavanchy outlines the current state of transport infrastructure and uses EDHECinfra data to support the findings. “An index for unlisted airports in advanced economies published by the EDHECinfra showed… Yaelle Gang enquires about the impact of Covd-19 for infrastructure investors and looks at some data: “According to data from the EDHEC Infrastructure Institute, infrastructure assets experienced a sharp drop… Arleen Jacobius of P&I highlights the impact of Covid-19 on infrastructure assets. “Companies involved in midstream assets that transport energy, a mainstay of many energy and some infrastructure funds, also… Doug Appel takes the long view on infrastructure after Covid-19 in this piece which mentions the infra300 index. “The lack of diversification” in those institutional portfolios will make this episode… An short piece on what covid-19 means for benchmarking infrastructure investments published in top1000funds. “What can infrastructure investors do this year with benchmarks absolute returns benchmarks defined as the risk-free… “An inability to capture the true volatility of private infrastructure has always been a challenge for institutional investors when allocating to the asset class, but EDHECinfra said its pricing technology… Chris O’Dea take a look at the private infrastructure debt space and used EDHECinfra spread data to make his point. “An EDHECinfra study compared the yield spread over short-term risk-free… René Lavanchi reviews some of the issues and debates that keep making ESG and infrastructure investment a good research topic: we don’t know enough about it. “Anything that’s reported is… John Dizard explores recent trends in infrastructure investments and mentions our results when it comes to performance and risk for investors in unlisted infrastructure equity: Essentially, infrastructure investments are priced… Zak Bentley looks at the 2019Q4 release of the EDHECinfra indices. “In previous years, interest rates have gone down so discounted cashflows have gone up. In recent months, we’ve seen… Benchmarking is important because it’s the only way to understand infrastructure investment on a multi-asset class basis, says Frederic Blanc-Brude, chief executive officer at Scientific Infra and director of the… “The infrastructure sectors and their related risks is a much more challenging task, according to Frédéric Blanc-Brude, director of the infrastructure institute at business school EDHEC,” writes Silvia Pavloni for… i3 senior editor Drew Campbell recently spoke with Frederic Blanc-Brude, director of EDHEC Infrastructure Institute, about the state of benchmarks in infrastructure investing. Here are excerpts from their conversation. Daniel Kemp discusses the future of sustainable investment in infrastructure and why it is though to measure and benchmark outcomes. “firmly quantifying the precise numbers is still not easy, despite… Pour Anne-Christine Champion (membre du Advisory Board EDHECinfra), responsable monde actifs réels chez Natixis, le secteur des infrastructures est un acteur indispensable dans l’accompagnement des mutations technologiques de notre économie…. Richard Lowe looks at the evidence available on the pricing of infrastructure assets. “Another interesting contention is that infrastructure was previously cheap and is now more fairly priced. EDHECinfra has… Tim Büttner of Portfolio Institutionell takes a look at EDHECinfra’s research on listed infrastructure: „Diese sind jedoch recht rar und zudem in Zahl und Volumen rückläufig, da diese von der… Christopher O’Dea explores the role of size and the lack of liquidity in infrastructure investing, drawing from EDHECinfra results. Richard Lowe reviews the state of the market and uses insights from EDHECinfra research. At the annual EDHECinfra Days Conference in London, Frédéric Blanc-Brude, director of EDHECinfra, suggested that rolling stock should be excluded from benchmarking classifications along with aircraft and ships, on the… EDHECinfra’s data collection and standardisation work was mentioned in John Dizard’s column: “The real threat to margins in the infra fund industry is transparency and liquidity. For example, Edhec’s Infrastructure… How many assets does an infrastructure portfolio need to be sufficiently diversified? Most institutional investors would say between 20 and 50, according to a recent survey by EDHECinfra and the… Doug Appel discusses the evolution of the definition of infrastructure investment in the context of EDHECinfra’s broad market indices. Infrastructure investing is “an evolution, not a revolution” for the West Sacramento-based California State Teachers’ Retirement System, said Paul Shantic, director of inflation sensitive portfolios at the $233 billion pension plan…. EDHEC Infrastructure Institute on June 7 launched global benchmark indexes for unlisted infrastructure equity and debt that market veterans say could pave the way for more efficient allocations to the… Big debate Does ESG enhance performance? Partners Group’s Esther Peiner and EDHECinfra’s Frédéric Blanc-Brude tell us what they think. You can read the article here. Susanna Rust reviews investors ESG focus and draws conclusions from our 2019 global infrastructure survey. Sarah Zheng discusses some of the findings of our 2019 global survey. “Around 54 per cent of the respondents said rising interest rates in the United States and the trend… Our recent paper on the factors that drive unlisted infrastructure equity valuations and recent market trends was highlighted in French Business Newspaper Les Echos, ahead of its key note presentation by Frederic Blanc-Brude at the Infrastructure Investor Global Summit in Berlin. The first ever study on ESG reporting and financial returns by Tim Whittaker and Silvia Garcia was highlighted by the Financial Times. “This paper challenges the oft-reported notion that better ESG ratings should somehow systematically increase or decrease returns,” said Tim Whittaker, research director at EDHECinfra.” One of the striking findings of the 2019 global survey was the rank of the UK in investors’ perceptions for the next 5 years. Infrastructure embodies long-term value, beyond the… Infrastructure is a new asset class; numerous deals had to happen before buyers and sellers discovered a ‘fair price’.” “It is also important to note that valuations did not just… The bigger issue standing in the way of higher US infrastructure investment is the lack of homogeneity in financing and procurement across states. The US cannot be thought of as a… Without a proper taxonomy providing a set of criteria to define infrastructure it is hard for asset managers to structure the solutions investors need. The EDHEC Infrastructure Institute, as part of… EDHECinfra has now built the largest database of infrastructure investment data in the world. The data has been used to create performance benchmarks that are needed for asset allocation, prudential… “EDHECinfra was created to address the knowledge gap faced by infrastructure investors. Investors need proper performance benchmarks for private infrastructure that allow them to understand infrastructure performance in a multi-asset… EDHEC has been gathering data from asset owners to produce indices that address the specific needs of the infrastructure asset class. It has sought to address two major issues: one,… According to the Annual Global Infrastructure Investor Survey 2017 by the Global Infrastructure Hub and EDHEC Infrastructure Institute-Singapore, 37 per cent of infrastructure investors invest in emerging markets, up from 20 per… EDHECinfra Days conference is highlighted as a must attend event as speakers discuss the number of inadequacies with the current approach to infrastructure fund management, including those relating to costs,… Others, looking at asset owners shouldering the design and development of city train networks, see mostly outsized risks. “It’s the most concentrated bet they can possibly make,” … It’s like… “The unlisted infrastructure sector is evolving rapidly to become more transparent and better benchmarked, so that large institutional investors such as GPFG will now be able to approach it on… “Without adequate performance benchmarks infrastructure investors have found it challenging to make investments in infrastructure” “Using unique asset pricing technology, we are able to compute the metrics that investors and… Jennifer Thompson asks why it is so hard to invest in US infra. “There is a definite demand for infrastructure from US investors, but the majority of this capital is… “Although infrastructure is illiquid, our research shows that if you can measure the risk-adjusted performance effectively, investment becomes much less challenging. “You do see negative returns on some assets. But… “Infrastructure investors today use ad hoc benchmarks for unlisted infrastructure investment. EDHECinfra wishes to establish an industry standard for the infrastructure asset class – and we’ve made progress.” EDHECinfra’s Sarah… “Three-quarters of industry representatives said they would use an infrastructure investment benchmark to understand how assets are performing, according to an Edhec Business School study, which surveyed 200 infrastructure investors.”… “A majority of infrastructure investors agree that standardised performance data is needed to better judge returns, according to research from EDHECinfra, but they differ on how that information should be… “Traditional geographic and sectoral categories used for capital markets benchmarks have been widely rejected by institutional infrastructure investors, according to a survey by EDHEC Infrastructure Institute.” EDHECinfra’s research paper “Selecting… As infrastructure investment grows, the boundaries are being stretched by some asset managers investing in real estate-type assets with infrastructure value-add labels slapped on top. Investors are often confused as… “The Argentinian presidency of the G20 opens this month and will be marked by a focus on infrastructure investment. The G20 and OECD have already announced a wide scale data… “The traditional asset managers are now having to operate in what they call the value-add space, where the asset might be brownfield but it has a greenfield element. This influx… “Listed infrastructure, in its current form, cannot be called an asset class. Asset managers offering so called ‘infrastructure funds’ are misleading investors. It has been argued that the wrapper does… EDHECinfra’s Frédéric Blanc-Brude went head-to-head with David Bentley, of GIP-backed ATLAS Infrastructure, in an Oxford-style debate at the Infrastructure Investor HK summit. Read the full article here. “Some investors are happy to see infrastructure as a lower return/lower risk asset because they have a different balance sheet. That is, they are interested in long term value and… The latest Investor Perceptions of Infrastructure 2017 survey finds that investors do not require a greater risk premium to invest in greenfield projects compared to brownfield ones. EDHECinfra’s research paper… Sophie Baker reported some of the findings of our 2017 global survey. “Institutional investors want to increase their allocations to infrastructure over the medium term, with an emphasis on emerging… “A new global survey of major international institutional investors has found strong investor demand for infrastructure, including record levels of interest in emerging market infrastructure with 37.5 per cent of… Frédéric Blanc-Brude doubles down on why he thinks listed infrastructure – in its current form should not be called a new asset class in Infrastructure Investor. Read the full article… Sophie Roland highlights the challenges faced by infrastructure investors in terms of diversification using some insights from EDHEC research (in French). Seul problème : pour bénéficier de tous ces bienfaits, un… “Support for infrastructure investment, the idea that asset owners should commit to long-term capital projects through a mix of debt and equity, is a powerful notion at the heart of…
Infrastructure Investor: CBRE Investment Management: The road ahead for transportation infrastructure
IPE: Investor groups warn UK against including gas in green taxonomy
Bloomberg: Suspended HSBC Banker Draws Ire From Academics Over Climate Rant
ESG Investor: Asset Owners and Managers to Target Renewable and Social Infrastructure
IPE: North American pension funds outperform infrastructure market in 2021
IPE: Natural gas doesn’t need EU green taxonomy inclusion – EDHECinfra
Bloomberg: Gas Companies Eye Green Debt After EU Rulebook Inclusion
IPE Real Assets: Toll roads. Stay in lane
IPE Real Assets: Airports. In for the long haul
IPE Real Assets: No more quartile lottery!
Infrastructure Investor: Robust benchmarks needed for infra investors
AFR: Data opens up infrastructure options
P&I: Sydney Airport smiles on third bid from investor consortium
P&I: Bid process for Sydney Airport puts pandemic’s impact in the limelight
Investment Magazine: Reframing infrastructure in the new portfolio context
AFR: Building transparency into infrastructure investment
Investment Magazine: New infrastructure valuation tools address the risks of inequitable switching
DWS: Private infrastructure equity strategic outlook update H2 2021
The Business Time: ‘Common language’ and risk data critical to mobilise private capital, close sustainable infrastructure financing gap: Indranee
Inframation: News analysis: The ‘Next Big Test’ arrives for infrastructure – Inflation
Infrastructure Investor: Peak infra has peaked
Infrastructure Investor: Australia to introduce unlisted superfundbenchmarks for infra
AFR: Backlash against new super performance index
IPE Real Assets: What the return of inflation means for real assets
ESG Investor: Plans to Unleash Sustainable Infrastructure Flows Accelerate
Investment Magazine: Reinventing infrastructure: Data improvement is reframing the asset class
Infrastructure Investor: II Global Passport: Infra ‘can do better now’ on valuations
IPE Real Assets: Do you know the fair value of your infrastructure investments?
IPE Real Assets: Infrastructure ESG reporting schemes not capturing financial risks, EDHEC warns
top1000funds: The importance of the right benchmark
IP&E Real Assets: Regulation – What SFDR means for infrastructure funds
IP&E Real Assets: Should infrastructure investors write-down their airport investments?
Inframation. In-depth: New Rules May Turn Super Funds Off Infrastructure
IP&E: Why the largest infrastructure investors and managers outperform
PDI: Asian investors switch on to infra
AVCJ: Coronavirus & infrastructure: Trial by fire
Infrastructure Investor: France has completely failed to regulate toll roads, says EDHEC
Canadian Investment Review: Is it time for pension plans to do away with absolute return benchmarks in infrastructure?
Infrastructure Investor: ‘No reason’ for infra investors to use absolute benchmarks, EDHECinfra says
IP&E: Top 100 Infrastructure Managers 2020: A big balancing act
IP&E: Transport infrastructure: Global value lockdown
CIR: What’s next for infrastructure assets after a rough Q1?
P&I: Infrastructure’s defensive role under scrutiny
P&I: Infrastructure risk put to test with COVID-19
top1000funds: Investing in infra: living dangerously?
IP&E: EDHECinfra captures COVID-19 impact on private infrastructure market
IP&E: Infrastructure debt funds come of age
IP&E: ESG in infrastructure – Benchmark blues
FT: Infrastructure funds have become a way around decarbonisation targets
Unlisted infra assets deliver 14% gain in 2019, EDHECinfra index reveals
CIR: The challenges of benchmarking infrastructure in a pension portfolio
The Banker: Assessing sustainable infrastructure: the bigger picture
Institutional Investing in Infrastructure: A conversation with Frederic Blanc-Brude
Why investing in resilience is here to stay
Les Echos: La « smart infrastructure », clé de notre mutation économique
IP&E: Is infrastructure too expensive? In a word, no
Portfolio Institutionell: Eine Infrastruktur aus Aktien
IP&E Real Assets: Why big is often best
IP&E Real Assets: Is infrastructure on the right track?
IP&E Real Assets: As OTPP invests in SpaceX, should infra investors look beyond ‘grounded’ assets?
FTfm: Infra funds can no longer play the arbitrage game
IP&E Real Assets: Is rolling stock infrastructure?
P&I: As infrastructure matures, fuss on style drift grows
P&I: Infrastructure investing ‘evolution not revolution’ for CalSTRS, official says
Pensions & Investments: Indexes put bright light on unlisted assets
Infrastructure Investor: The big debate – Does ESG enhance performance?
IP&E: Chart of the Week: Alternatives investors bullish on UN SDGs
SCMP: Rising rate risks erode global interest in emerging markets’ infrastructure
Les Echos: Infrastructures – Why managers need not fear a bubble
FT: ESG has no financial benefit for infrastructure groups, study finds
IP&E Real Assets: Despite Brexit, infrastructure investors still believe in the UK economy
Infrastructure Investor: ‘Double-digit returns are behind us’
IP&E Real Assets: Can America build bridges (and roads)?
Infrastructure Investor: Why clearly defining infrastructure is critical
Building benchmarks for infrastructure investors
Alt Assets: Better benchmarks to boost infrastructure investment in untapped markets
IPE Real Assets: Building an asset class from the ground up
Financial Post: US$1 Trillion Infrastructure Investment Opportunity in 10 Compact with Africa Countries
IPE Real Assets: Infrastructure managers told to ‘raise game’ or miss out on DC pensions
Pensions and Investments: New Zealand Super bids to build Auckland light rail network
Globe News Wire: EDHECinfra urges Norwegian government to reconsider exclusion of unlisted infrastructure from GPFG mandate
Success benchmarked: Initial forays into infrastructure investment benchmarks are producing results
FTfm: US fails to rake in infrastructure cash
The Times: The Future of Infrastructure
Top 1000 Funds: Towards an infrastructure asset class
The Financial Times: Infrastructure investors seek better performance data
Infrastructure Investor: ‘Wanted’: better performance data
IPE Real Assets: Infrastructure investors reject traditional sector segmentation
IPE Real Assets: Infrastructure: Calling time on borrowed definitions
ETF Stream: Are infrastructure funds all that they seem?
Asian Venture Capital Journal: Asian LPs and infrastructure
IPE Real Assets: Listed infrastructure funds should be ‘clearly labelled’
Infrastructure Investor: Is listed infra fake or real?
Inframation: Addressing currency risk in Asia
Inframation: Survey casts doubt on greenfield risk premia
P&I: Institutional investors eye bigger infrastructure allocations, with focus on emerging markets
Institutional Asset Manager: Infrastructure investors continue to attract global investors
Infrastructure Investor: Listed infra is a sector bet
Le casse-tête de la diversification des investissements en infrastructures
Top 1000 Funds: ‘Fake infra’ threatens real deal