What counts?
Infrastructure: The definition of infrastructure investment, for the purposes of this ranking, is investments in man-made facilities and/or assets that play a critical role in any given economy. This can be segmented further into five broad types: transportation (railways, roads, ports, and airports), energy/renewables (generation and distribution), telecommunications (digital infrastructure, data centres), utilities (water, wastewater, waste management) and social infrastructure (schools, hospitals, and government buildings). Assets must be tangible and physical, whether existing (brownfield) or those in the development phase (greenfield) that are expected to exhibit stable, predictable cashflows
over a long-term investment horizon. Institutions’ portfolios are measured at fair value or
NAV.
Infrastructure debt vehicles: we consider equity investments into infrastructure vehicles as long as the institution includes these as part of its infrastructure portfolio.
Capital invested through the following structures is included:
• Funds and funds of funds managed by a third party (both open-end and closed-end)
• Direct investments (equity investments into infrastructure projects)
• Co-investment vehicles
• Separately managed accounts
• Joint ventures
What doesn’t count?
Non-proprietary capital: this is a ranking of capital allocators and we do not include capital raised or managed on behalf of third-party investors. However, specialist asset managers with full discretionary management of public pension portfolios are considered for the purposes of this ranking.
Uncalled capital: this ranking excludes any capital that has been committed but not yet
been called by a fund manager.
Direct debt investments: we exclude any form of infrastructure debt origination for the purposes of this ranking.
Expected commitments: we do not count pending or future commitments and investments or the uncommitted portion of an institution’s target allocation.
Private equity: we distinguish between private equity energy and infrastructure energy and only consider the latter. Private equity energy includes investment into energy companies, investing in exploration and production (upstream) assets, and investments that tend to carry greater risk. Infrastructure energy includes investments in midstream and downstream assets (power generation) and renewable energy assets, such as oil and gas pipelines, oil terminals, wind farms, and solar parks.
Listed infrastructure: this is a private markets ranking, and commitments made to listed
infrastructure vehicles are not included.
Real estate: any property used for commercial/business purposes such as offices, hotels,
retail, and industrial. Also, multifamily/apartment properties and portfolios of single-family
houses assembled via an institutional platform are excluded.
Hedge funds: as these primarily target liquid securities or trading strategies.
Natural resources: investments either directly or through funds into natural resources assets (agri, timber, etc)