Macquarie Asset Management announced that €1.2 billion has been raised into the Macquarie European Infrastructure Debt Fund (MEID) upon the fund’s Final Close.
Alongside the fund, an additional €2.3 billion was “raised from separately managed accounts.”
MEID is Macquarie’s first dedicated European infrastructure debt fund and was designed “for insurance companies and pension fund investors.”
It was primarily launched due to demand “from insurance companies for a pooled fund vehicle that would invest into high quality infrastructure debt assets aligned to Solvency II regulations.”
MEID has a portfolio of 24 European infrastructure debt investments and is over “80 per cent deployed at final closing.”
These investments span across “renewables – solar and wind; digital – fibre and data centres; transportation and adjacent assets – roads, rail, ferries, motorway services; and other energy assets.”
This announcement showcases how institutional investors “are increasing their allocations to infrastructure debt, recognising its ability to add diversification and act as an inflation hedge to a portfolio.”
The asset class has demonstrated resilience and “ability to offer stable cash flows, offering risk-adjusted returns, compared to similarly rated corporate bonds.”
Macquarie Asset Management’s Credit and Insurance platform is supported by approximately “200 investment professionals globally managing over €200 billion of capital on behalf of clients across Liquid Credit, Private Credit and Insurance.”
The business has expertise in infrastructure investment, “since inception deploying ~€12.5 billion in infrastructure debt. and has one of the largest infrastructure debt teams in the market plus an experienced Investment Committee.”