Golding continues its long series of successful infrastructure funds of funds with fifth-generation vehicle // Five investments and first draw-downs already made // Increased allocation to secondaries and co-investments in a positive market with strong deal flow
Munich – Golding Capital Partners, one of Europe's leading independent asset managers for alternative investments, has announced the first closing in December 2023 of its flagship infrastructure fund of funds, Golding Infrastructure 2022. The fifth-generation fund again met with great interest from investors and held its first close with capital commitments of €360 million in a demanding environment. No less than 26 per cent of the commitments are from new investors. Portfolio construction has advanced quickly, with five investments made in 2023 and some 14 per cent of capital already called up.
The institutional AIF qualifies for Article 8 SFDR and will remain true to Golding’s proven strategy for infrastructure products. With a target portfolio of around 15 carefully selected funds from the primary and secondary markets and a total of some 150 to 250 individual transactions (including around 15 co-investments), Golding will again be ensuring a broad geographic and sector diversification and focusing on resilient investments offering attractive risk-adjusted returns. The fund will continue to concentrate on infrastructure markets in Europe and North America.
Focus on secondary transactions and co-investments
The only slight adjustment has been to the allocation for transaction-based investments, which include secondaries and co-investments. Two of the investments in portfolio funds were completed via secondary market transactions and a commitment has also been made to an initial co-investment deal.
“As we have seen in recent years, secondaries and co-investments are a sensible addition to the portfolio of a broadly diversified infrastructure fund of funds. They have a positive impact on cash flow and overall performance. At the same time we are currently seeing record deal flows for both secondary transactions and co-investments. This will benefit Golding Infrastructure 2022 too. We already have several attractive opportunities in the pipeline for the ongoing portfolio construction”, says Dr Thilo Tecklenburg, Partner and Co-Head Infrastructure at Golding.
Bernd Schumacher, Managing Director and Co-Head Infrastructure, added: “In view of the current market environment we expect there to be a large number of very attractive investment opportunities in the infrastructure asset class in 2024. Since transaction activity is forecast to be highly dynamic, we can be extremely choosy. So the opportunity to invest in infrastructure will be better for investors in 2024 than it has been for a long time.”
“This strategic adjustment underlines our agility and ability to refine our proven investment strategy for the benefit of our investors. At the same time, strong investor demand is a sign of trust in our track record, our strong network and our well-established product line. Resilient infrastructure assets remain an important building block in the portfolios of banks, savings banks, pension funds and insurers”, says Hubertus Theile-Ochel, Managing Partner at Golding.
Long-standing infrastructure expertise
Golding can look back on more than ten years of success in infrastructure fund-of-funds investing. The product series was launched more than ten years ago with Golding Infrastructure 2013. Golding Infrastructure 2020 held its final closing in September 2022 with commitments of €943 million, making it the largest fund ever raised in the history of Golding Capital Partners and one of the biggest funds of funds on the infrastructure market.
Golding Infrastructure 2022 is a specialist AIF and is open to institutional investors making a minimum commitment of €5 million. The fund has a planned life of 15 years plus one optional extension. Its target net IRR is 8 to 9 per cent p.a. and its target volume is €700 million.
