BlackRock Real Assets achieves a $1.67bn final fundraise for an inaugural global infrastructure debt strategy

BlackRock Real Assets has achieved a $1.67 billion final fundraise for the Global Infrastructure Debt Fund (GID), inclusive of $150 million in co-investments.

The fund has seen commitments from over 20 institutional investors, including leading global insurance companies, public and private pension funds, and family offices, from the United States, Canada, Japan, and Korea, representing more than three times the initial fundraising target.

BlackRock Real Assets established its infrastructure debt investment capability in 2013 and has an extensive track record across both investment grade and high yield infrastructure debt. Today, the GID team manages $16.6 billion in global client commitments, which represents approximately one quarter of BlackRock Real Assets’ total client commitments.

GID is BlackRock’s first commingled fund offering in the high-yield infrastructure debt market, complementing the firm’s existing capabilities across the capital structure in senior debt and equity. The fund sits alongside $1.3 billion managed through investment grade commingled funds. GID targets infrastructure investments in essential real assets located primarily in developed markets and backed by visible cash flow streams. The fund’s focus on essential assets helps deliver uncorrelated income and portfolio resilience, especially amidst global market uncertainty resulting from the pandemic.

The successful fundraise demonstrates the continued appeal of infrastructure debt investments for institutional investors, due to their potential for attractive income and portfolio diversification benefits. With regulatory and budget pressures limiting traditional bank and government lending in infrastructure, the opportunity for private investment has increased, with institutions looking to partner with experienced firms such as BlackRock, whose scale and resources provides access to a global opportunity set.

Jeetu Balchandani, Global Head of Infrastructure Debt at BlackRock, comments: “We are delighted with the success of our inaugural high yield fundraise. It is a testament to the team’s ability to deliver strong performance for our clients, leveraging our unique direct origination capability to meet the ever-growing desire for resilient infrastructure asset exposure. The team is working hard to close several attractive investment opportunities across key sectors, including digital infrastructure, which has emerged as a star of the pandemic. With an extensive forward investment pipeline, we believe we are poised to take advantage of opportunities across all major markets.”

Anne Valentine Andrews, Global Head of BlackRock Real Assets, adds: “As one of the largest infrastructure debt platforms in the world, we have natural and direct access to multiple origination channels and the ability to invest at scale to influence deal terms and pricing for the benefit of our clients. The Global Infrastructure Debt Fund continues to provide investors with the agility and resiliency they seek, which has made this an especially important fundraise through the pandemic.”

As one of the world’s largest dedicated infrastructure debt providers, BlackRock Infrastructure Debt seeks to be positioned as a preferred lender for sponsors and borrowers seeking custom fit financing solutions on a direct basis, leveraging the team’s 20+ years of buy- and sell-side experience across senior members to both structure and execute deals. BlackRock’s infrastructure debt platform is differentiated as a true fiduciary manager that exclusively invests third party capital, ensuring that client objectives are at the center of all investment decisions.

As of March 31, 2021, BlackRock’s Infrastructure Debt platform has invested in over 125 projects across 18 countries in four continents. The 28-person team is based in New York, London, Bogota, and Hong Kong, enabling access to diverse opportunities for clients across the globe.

Source: Institutional Asset Manager