The pace of infrastructure transactions has slowed in recent months – with rising borrowing costs and economic uncertainties playing a part. The Swiss organisation is reportedly looking to do more work on the assets it already holds.

UBS Asset Management, part of UBS, is concentrating on improving the infrastructure investments that it already owns in the weakest dealmaking environment in a decade limits opportunities to buy new assets, according to Bloomberg (26 November).

The business, which oversees $1.5 trillion of assets, is adding more powerful turbines at its Texas wind farms venture, Phoenix Wind Repower, while replacing older copper routes with new fibre networks in the French and German countryside through Altitude Infra and Northern Fibre Networks, Andrew Morris, UBS Asset’s head of infrastructure equity, told the news service.

“We’re looking to take on opportunities where we can create clear value from our investing activities,” Morris said in an interview in Sydney. That means “taking on more risk to deliver more growth as opposed to just buying infrastructure because it’s nice and stable and produces yield.”

The report noted that global infrastructure deals are on track for the slowest year since 2013 as higher interest rates and an over allocation to private assets from big institutional investors has curbed demand for these assets. That’s likely to persist into next year, according to Morris.