Almost two years on from the launch of a fund aimed at infrastructure investments, New York-based private equity firm KKR has so far failed to announced any major investors, nor has it made any significant acquisitions. “Infrastructure is a multitrillion-dollar global marketplace with enormous need for private investment,” KKR co- founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts said at the time.
According to Bloomberg, firms had seen infrastructure funds as a way of providing governments with capital to maintain facilities. But infrastructure transactions fell to a four-year low of 130 in 2009, according to figures from Preqin, which has been compounded by a lack of interest in new funds and credit from banks.
KKR, among other major private equity players like Blackstone, has underlined its commitment to making infrastructure investments and still expects its expertise in long-running companies to make the funds successful.
“The global need for these investments, combined with the more limited availability of capital from traditional sources, such as governments, will drive significant demand for private capital in infrastructure,” said Raj Agrawal, a member of KKR’s infrastructure team.