For as long as Infrastructure Investor has published its ranking of the largest infrastructure managers by funds raised over a five-year rolling period, one thing has remained constant: Macquarie Asset Management, from 2010 until 2023, has held the top spot.
This year, that reign has come to an end with GIP/BlackRock moving into first place. The combined entity – whose official name is GIP, a part of BlackRock – had total funds raised over the five-year period of $113.80 billion. Last year’s totals for GIP and BlackRock respectively were $69.04 billion and $23.14 billion. It should be noted that while the BlackRock/GIP deal closed 1 October – after our ranking’s cut-off date of 31 August – Infrastructure Investor felt that treating each firm separately would result in a ranking that would quickly be outdated and not representative of industry developments. The combined entity’s fundraising total, however, only counts capital raised by 31 August.
The same applies to Actis and General Atlantic, which also announced their merger in January, and reached financial close on the deal the same day as GIP and BlackRock. However, General Atlantic’s acquisition of Actis did not result in any movement in the ranking, with Actis, which will continue to operate under that name, holding steady at 22.
But GIP/BlackRock displacing Macquarie from the top spot was not the only upset in this year’s ranking. With a number of closed-end funds and side vehicles worth roughly $16 billion falling off in the current counting period, Macquarie slipped to fourth place with total funds raised of $80.43 billion, down from $93.3 billion last year.
Brookfield Asset Management maintained second place, adding $12.56 billion to last year’s total, while KKR moved up a spot to take third place.
Fundraising growth
As for the ranking overall, this year’s total stood at $1.10 trillion. That might not seem, at first glance, like a big jump from last year’s $1.04 trillion, but it is a hefty $60 billion increase.
The increase speaks to an improved fundraising environment compared with 2023, when $49.5 billion was added to 2022’s total, but it is, nonetheless, significantly less than the $159.5 billion GPs added in 2022.
What has barely changed is the minimum amount a GP needed to raise to make it onto our ranking. Last year, Astatine Investment Partners slid into last place having raised $1.597 billion, while this year Québec-based Power Sustainable made its way into the II 100, raising $1.64 billion.
The findings the II 100 reveals are in line with our latest fundraising report, according to which the first nine months of 2024 have been “tepid”. The $66.5 billion raised in the first three quarters of this year is an improvement on the $52 billion raised in the same period in 2023.
But, as we noted in our report, it’s unclear whether 2024 will end on a high note or not. There are a number of mega-funds from the likes of GIP and Stonepeak, which are each raising their fifth flagship funds targeting $25 billion and $15 billion, respectively; and Brookfield with its second Global Transition Fund targeting $17 billion. But it will take more than just one mega-fund reaching final close by year end to put 2024 ahead of 2023.
Which mega-fund closes and when will determine not only whether the sector has managed to pull out of the fundraising doldrums but also who might be occupying the top spot in next year’s ranking, with just $14.65 billion currently standing between GIP and Brookfield.
Stay tuned.