Insights

Opinion pieces from the team, and uses cases covering private markets, infrastructure investment, climate change, social risk, and more.

Featured image for “Does Europe need a new model for private roads?”

Does Europe need a new model for private roads?

Sep. 10, 2018
Over-charging and under-investment: is the model broken? Private investment in European roads is under fire once more. The typical charge against the ubiquitous motorway concessions crossing France, Italy or Spain is that, as quasi-monopolies, they have a nasty tendency to under-invest and over-charge. This assertion is taking on new meaning as road infrastructure ages, and lack of sufficient maintenance and
Featured image for “Three routes to maximizing infrastructure finance for development”

Three routes to maximizing infrastructure finance for development

May. 23, 2018
There are big hurdles in place right now The industry needs to promote better standards, methods and benchmarking. That’s the only way to remove the hurdles that are preventing institutional capital from flowing into infrastructure. Institutional investors have become increasingly interested in infrastructure investment in recent years, in search for new sources of returns, diversification, duration and inflation hedging. However,
Featured image for “Bad procurement creates systematic risk for infrastructure investors”

Bad procurement creates systematic risk for infrastructure investors

Mar. 06, 2018
Singapore, 10 April 2018 – A case study of 10 Spanish toll road projects shows that ill-designed procurement can lead to pro-cyclical infrastructure investment risk and significant losses for private investors. EDHEC Infrastructure Institute – an academic research organisation building performance benchmarks for investors in private infrastructure – shed new light on the risks encountered in infrastructure project investment with
Featured image for “An industry standard for the infrastructure asset class”

An industry standard for the infrastructure asset class

Feb. 06, 2018
From ad hoc to world class Today infrastructure investors use ad hoc benchmarks for unlisted infrastructure investment. They know that’ snot good enough. At EDHECinfra, we are establishing an industry standard for the infrastructure asset class. And we’ve made significant process. We are establishing a framework for data collection and developing asset pricing techniques to measure the risk adjusted performance
Featured image for “Building benchmarks for infrastructure investors: a long but worthwhile journey”

Building benchmarks for infrastructure investors: a long but worthwhile journey

Jan. 01, 2018
This blog was originally published on the World Bank’s PPP Blog Website. It’s past time for proper infrastructure benchmarks The Argentinian presidency of the G20 opens this month. All the signs indicate that it will be marked by a focus on infrastructure investment. Already, the G20 and OECD have announced a wide-scale data collection initiative for the purpose of creating
Featured image for “Listed infra funds should be clearly labelled”

Listed infra funds should be clearly labelled

Dec. 06, 2017
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 not matter, but first impressions count. Our recent paper, The Rise of Fake Infra, reviewed the marketing material of 144 listed infrastructure products. That is, any listed fund with the