KKR Holds Final Closing For Infrastructure Fund; Says Sector Is Booming

Tom Burroughes

7 September 2018

US-based investments giant has announced the final closing of one of its infrastructure funds after a series of money-raising rounds.

The KKR Global Infrastructure Investors III is a $7.4 billion fund focused on countries in the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group of major industrialized nations. KKR will invest $358 million in capital alongside external investors through the firm’s balance sheet and employee commitments.

Family offices and high net worth individuals were among the investors in the fund, KKR said.

“The current scale of global infrastructure investment demand is simply enormous, and is only growing, with the need outstripping capital available,” Raj Agrawal, KKR member and global head of KKR’s infrastructure business, said.

The fund concentrates on critical infrastructure investments with low volatility and strong downside protection. The fund covers sectors such as energy; transportation; water, wastewater and waste; social infrastructure; and communications infrastructure.

The closing comes a decade after KKR first established a dedicated infrastructure team and strategy. With the closing of the fund, KKR’s infrastructure business manages approximately $13 billion in assets under management. Recent transactions by the fund include Starlight, which owns a portfolio of about 10,200 telecommunication towers across France, and Discovery Midstream, a private natural gas gathering and processing business in Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin.

In his election campaign, US President Donald Trump made spending on infrastructure a campaign platform commitment, a move seen as beneficial to that sector of the economy, although questions arose about how a country with such a large public debt could afford it, given the its recent package of tax cuts.