Publications

- March 3, 2014: Vol. 7, Number 3

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Working together: You cannot find the solution until you define the problem

by Sheila Hopkins

As everyone knows, the world needs a gazillion dollars (euros, pounds, krona, pesos, yen, etc.) in infrastructure development and redevelopment. To be more precise, the estimated shortfall in global infrastructure debt and equity investment is at least $1 trillion per year!

This is a huge need, yet there is an equally huge amount of capital being raised. You read about multibillion-dollar funds closing on a monthly basis (Ardian/AXA, Blackstone, Brookfield, EIG, GIP, IFC, KKR, Macquarie, Meridiam — and I’m only up to “M” in the IREI FundTracker database of recently closed infrastructure funds closing with more than $1 billion raised). Yet, investors are still short of their target allocations.

So it appears there is no scarcity of capital. And there is no scarcity in need. Why is it so hard to get the two together? Well … it just is. Private investors want and need one thing; public entities want and need another.

The 

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