In this Spring 2017 issue of the EDHEC/IP&E Research Supplement, research by EDHECinfra includes the summary results of the first in-depth survey of institutional investors’ perceptions and expectations of infrastructure investment.

It documents the reasons for investing in infrastructure and whether currently available investment products or strategies are helping investors meet these objectives.

The findings provide a first step towards integrating infrastructure in long-term investment solutions. Key findings are reported in the following areas: investment beliefs; products and objectives; benchmarking; and ESG (environmental, social and governance).

We also ask whether focusing on listed infrastructure stocks creates diversification benefits previously unavailable to large investors that are already active in public markets. We conclude that what is typically referred to as listed infrastructure is not an asset class or a unique combination of market factors, but instead cannot be persistently distinguished from existing exposures in investors’ portfolios.