Public Infrastructure and the 1%

From a special insert (WSJ.Money) in  my Wall Street Journal on Saturday, How to Buy a Toll Road: Wealth advisers are steering clients into infrastructure deals. Brooklyn Bridge not included:

"In growing numbers, rich families are investing in infrastructure, putting their money to work on remote mountaintops, bustling harbors and across deserts the world over.  This broad category covers the structures and systems needed to keep economies running and growing.  So think highways, public transit, power plants, telecom backbones - and don't forget schools hospitals, dumpsites and ports.  We see it all the time," says Alan Harter, of Pactolus Private Wealth Management , a registered investment adviser in McLean, Va."

From the Citi Infrastructure Investors website:

"Citi Infrastructure Investors (CII) seeks to capitalize on the growing need for infrastructure funding around the world and increased private sector involvement in infrastructure-related investments. CII pursues investment opportunities within infrastructure sectors such as transportation and utilities. Our primary geographic focus is on the countries that make up the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

CII currently manages a $3.4 billion infrastructure fund that pursues controlling investment opportunities in infrastructure assets such as mature transportation and utilities. CII’s current portfolio consists of: Kelda, owner of Yorkshire Water, a regulated UK water and sewer company serving 4.7 million people; Itínere Infraestructuras S.A., the concessionaire for five mature toll roads in Spain totaling 609 km; DP World Australia, a container terminal business serving the five key state capital cities in Australia with annual volumes of approximately 2.3 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units); and YVR Airport Services Ltd., a leading global airport investment, management and development company with airports in six countries including Canada and the United Kingdom.

CII's global investment team, headed by Felicity B. Gates and Holly K. Koeppel, possesses extensive experience in direct infrastructure investment, and is based in New York, London and Sydney."

Also, from J.P. Morgan Asset Management Infrastructure Investments Group:

"The J.P. Morgan Infrastructure Investments Group (IIG), headquartered in New York, is a part of J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets. IIG was founded in 2006 to pursue investments in essential facilities and services that are vital to the economic health of our communities. Led by industry executive Mark Weisdorf, the group is represented by over 30 dedicated professionals who source, analyze, negotiate, acquire, and manage infrastructure assets across the thirty member countries of the OECD."