New entrants, expansions and product diversification continues to contribute to the movement in the market. This is no new trend, but some of this year’s headlines include the finalization of DigitalBridge’s acquisition of the AMP Capital Infrastructure Equity team, now known as InfraBridge. Others include Arch Street Capital Advisors, a real estate investment firm that has announced their expansion into infrastructure, and Innagreen Investments who have formally announced the launch of their investment platform marked by an initial capital commitment and their first acquisition. In the world of earlier-stage investments, S2G announced a new $300m ClimateTech fund, TDK Ventures launched their $150m third fund targeting InfraTech, and Gigascale Capital has emerged to invest from Pre-Seed to Series A.
As deals were announced throughout the first half of the year, one sector seemed to have tailwinds and consistently hit the press. Investors were deploying capital in low carbon fuels like RNG, hydrogen, ammonia, SAF, and others. Conversations with our clients around areas of interest and additive candidate experience support this observation. Headline deals from funds included IFM Investors’ majority interest in GreenGasUSA through their Net Zero Infrastructure Fund, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners’ acquisition of PurposeEnergy, and the launch of NeuVentures by the newly re-branded Lotus Infrastructure Partners team. Corporates like Buckeye and Marathon Petroleum were also active with investments in BAES Infrastructure and LF Bioenergy, respectively. At the project level, strategic partnerships led the way with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Sustainable Fuels Group teaming up on a blue ammonia project in the Gulf Coast, OCI and Linde committing $1.8bn into Hydrogen, and Amber Infrastructure Group and Green Impact Partners partnering on RNG development.
In our Investor Relations & Fundraising practice, we continue to see demand from multi-strategy asset managers looking to hire Infrastructure Product Specialists to bring sector expertise to the generalist sales and distribution teams. Notable closes included Ares Infrastructure Debt Fund V at $5bn, Andros Energy Capital II at $750m, ArcLight Capital Partners closing a Continuation Fund at $407m and Vision Ridge Partners closing the SAF Annex Fund as they pick up Chris Tehranian as Head of Investor Relations. RBC’s Infrastructure fund and Excelsior Capital both achieved first closes while DIF Capital Partners, Basalt Infrastructure Partners, Macquarie, and Brookfield all pulled in significant capital commitments from institutional investors.
In our last report, we predicted 2023 would be the year of Credit, and our predictions look correct. During the previous six months, we have heard that most of the Infra Credit Funds are raising capital seamlessly with a target to close Q1 next year. That said, there has been an increase in hiring across the Private Credit space. The US Capital Market space is picking up. Most Private Equity firms in Europe have established Capital Markets / Financing Teams. However, we have realized this is not as prevalent in the States. We have already seen an increase in Capital Markets opportunities. Still, we believe this is just the beginning, as we have had conversations with many Private Equity firms discussing building this function on their teams. New players have entered the chat in the US Market. DC Advisory has built a team in New York with the hires of two Managing Directors, Anthony Edwards & Hannah Schofield. Jennifer Powers and Reiner Boehning have merged into ECP’s dedicated credit investing business and launched a sustainable credit platform named ECP ForeStar.
Although we may have been secretly hoping for a slight slowdown in the summer, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn’t look like that is the case this year. As for the year’s second half, we don’t see a slowdown anytime soon. However, given increased interest rates, some institutions may take a hit in the next 12 months. Only time will tell. Until then, please enjoy the following report which compiles public moves made with the Americas Infrastructure, Energy, & Digital space over H1 2023.
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