Private Infrastructure - Secondaries

Partners Group invests in dedicated infrastructure assets since 2001. A particular focus remains on value investing in the nascent private infrastructure secondary market, where Partners Group sources attractive opportunities to implement its disciplined value investing strategy. The firm has the in-depth industry expertise to value underlying infrastructure assets on a bottom-up basis, understands the value creation strategy of each individual company and seeks for realization opportunities in its extensive network.

Example – private infrastructure secondary investment


Project Giles, the purchase of a mature portfolio of operational infrastructure assets from a large international insurance which had legacy commitments and needed a timely solution.

Portfolio. Partners Group completed this secondary investment in December 2009, purchasing infrastructure assets in different sectors such as waste management, ports, airports and energy infrastructure assets around the globe. The most mature and largest asset in the portfolio has almost completed its value creation process. However, all the other companies still have meaningful room for operational improvement. Partners Group expects to start harvesting the portfolio in the next 24 months with the bulk of exits happening three to four years after Partners Groups entry. 

Knowing the asset. The largest infrastructure asset in the portfolio, one of the largest energy midstream companies in North America with thousands of miles of pipelines, over 100  terminals and other transportation, storage and handling facilities of a number of different energy commodities. Partners Group has followed this asset closely through previous transactions, has built an in-depth knowledge of the company. It recognized that the underlying fundamental value creation has not been fully reflected in its valuation. Overall, Partners Group was able to negotiate a 25% discount on the fair market value of the entire asset base in the portfolio.

Return expectation. Partners Group entered this transaction at an attractive point in time. To date, all assets show near-term value improvement while downside is limited due to Partners Group’s attractive entry valuation. Partners Group expects to generate a 1.7x net multiple and 22% net IRR on these investments for its clients.