The New Era of Infrastructure Investing

11 Pages Posted: 12 May 2011

See all articles by Gordon L. Clark

Gordon L. Clark

Oxford University - Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment

Ashby Monk

Stanford University

Ryan Orr

Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects

William Scott

Queensland Investment Corporation

Date Written: May 10, 2011

Abstract

Insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations and family offices all have the ability to invest over inter-generational time spans. This is a unique competitive advantage in markets for long-term, illiquid assets, such as infrastructure. And yet, despite a clear affinity for this asset class, a variety of constraints are preventing these investors from taking up their theoretical place of prominence in the market for private infrastructure. Many of the constraints stem from the time-inconsistency and principal-agent problems embedded in the third party fund management model. In a bid to circumvent these hurdles, some funds have launched in-house investment teams to invest in infrastructure directly. However, before these ‘in-sourcers’ can reap the rewards of such an approach, they have serious challenges to overcome. This paper thus offers insights into how institutional investors can establish internal programs. In particular, we provide specific details about the challenges of direct investment programs and offer suggestions as to how these challenges can be overcome. However, while we conclude that direct investors are the future of infrastructure investing, fund managers will still have a crucial role to play in the markets development. This may warrant a re-conceptualization of intermediation, but, ultimately, this will lead to a revitalization of the asset class and, we expect, a new era of infrastructure investing.

Keywords: Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, Infrastructure, Investment Governance

Suggested Citation

Clark, Gordon L. and Monk, Ashby and Orr, Ryan and Scott, William, The New Era of Infrastructure Investing (May 10, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1837813 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1837813

Gordon L. Clark

Oxford University - Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment ( email )

South Parks Road
Oxford, OX1 3QY
United Kingdom
+44 1865 285197 (Phone)
+44 1865 285073 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/glclark.html

Ashby Monk (Contact Author)

Stanford University ( email )

United States

Ryan Orr

Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

William Scott

Queensland Investment Corporation ( email )

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