The commercial real estate debt team, which has a €7bn debt platform, will be in charge of the allocation and the firm is looking to build a dedicated team of infrastructure professionals as the new infrastructure debt platform develops.
The team aims to underwrite infrastructure loans of up to €500m backed by assets located in established global economies, with a focs on core European economies. The firm states that it has already established a strong pipeline of potential investments.
Isabelle Scemama, head of real asset finance, said: “We are seeing widespread opportunities across western Europe, including Germany, the UK, Belgium and France so there will not be one specific country focus. We are targeting core infrastructure assets, so utilities and transport, along with public private partnership (PPP) opportunities.”
Charles Dupont has been appointed as head of the new infrastructure debt platform and he will report to Scemama.
Dupont was a partner at Antin Infrastructure Partners for five years, before which he worked elsewhere in the infrastructure sector.
Laurent Clamagirand, Axa Group chief investment officer, said: “Our decision to increase our exposure to the infrastructure debt asset class is in line with our global investment strategy. It meets our need to find long-term investments and diversify our credit portfolio in order to match the guarantees we offer our clients, and also demonstrates the role insurance companies can play in financing the real economy.”
Among the investment manager’s real estate debt offerings is the Axa CRE 2, currently the second largest real estate debt fund in market. It follows a similar investment process to CRE Senior 1, a €1bn real estate debt fund which was the third largest fund of its type to close in 2012. The fund targets senior debt in western Europe, including France, Germany and the Netherlands.
A number of firms have been entering the infrastructure debt space in the past few months, including Legg Mason, which launched its fund in March.
