INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure consists of all physical and organizational facilities that are crucial for the operation and development of a modern economy. This includes all economic infrastructure like transportation, communication and energy infrastructure as well as social infrastructure like education, health and judicial infrastructure. One can describe private investments along two dimensions. First they can either invest direct in specific assets or indirect via a share from an infrastructure fund. Second infrastructure investments can be done either via equity or external funds.
A big advantage of this asset class is its stable and predictable returns. Moreover, the returns have quite often some sort of inflation protection and they help to diversify the portfolio. These attributes make infrastructure investment so attractive for institutional clients. The target return lays, depending on the project, between 6% and 15%. Note that due to the nature of the projects and the long-term horizon, this asset class is very illiquid.
Transportation
This includes every object that is crucial for a good transport infrastructure like airports, bridges, parking structures, harbors, toll roads or tunnels.
Energy and Supply
This includes every object that is crucial for energy providing or supply and disposal like gas grids, electricity grids, electricity production, renewable energies or sewages.
Communication
This includes investments in for example cell towers, transmission networks, cable systems or satellites.
Social Infrastructure
This includes objects that are necessary for social needs. This could be e.g. health facilities, detention centres, public housing, waste disposal facilities or stadiums.