Macquarie collects $US8bn for infrastructure investments in the Americas

Macquarie Asset Management has closed its latest fund dedicated to investing in infrastructure projects and companies in the Americas. Picture: Britta Campion

Macquarie Asset Management, one of the world’s largest private infrastructure investors by assets under management, has closed its latest fund dedicated to investing in infrastructure projects and companies in the Americas.

The investment arm of Australian financial services provider Macquarie Group collected a little over $US6.8bn ($10.45bn) for Macquarie Infrastructure Partners VI, the firm said, slightly less than a $US6.9bn predecessor pool that closed in 2021.

Macquarie raised an additional $US1.3bn of co-investment capital that it can invest alongside the latest fund, the firm said.

Around 70 per cent of capital commitments came from investors that had backed previous Macquarie real-assets funds, the firm said.

Half of the total came from North American investors, the highest proportion among the funds raised so far in the series.

Investors that have disclosed commitments to the fund include California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which committed $US500m, and Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago, which pledged $US25m.

Macquarie said it would use Fund VI mainly to acquire assets in the transportation, digital infrastructure, utilities, energy and waste sectors in the Americas.

The fund has already backed several deals, including the December acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in a portfolio of Texas- and Louisiana-based infrastructure assets from materials and chemicals manufacturer Dow.

Macquarie put up $US2.4bn to acquire the assets focused on areas such as power and steam production, and oil-and-gas pipelines.

The infrastructure investor also tapped Fund VI to back Canadian air transport hub Montreal Metropolitan Airport, US internet and television provider SwyftFiber and Brazilian toll road operator Monte Rodovias.

Through Fund VI, Macquarie aims to generate a 10 per cent to 12 per cent net internal rate of return, a common performance metric for private-markets funds that includes unrealised gains, according to documents prepared for the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund.

It is also aiming to return to investors an annual cash yield of between 4 per cent to 6 per cent over the life of the fund, the documents show.

Infrastructure funds around the globe collected $US87bn in investor commitments in 2024, a 14 per cent increase from $US76bn raised by such funds in 2023, but far below a 2022 peak of $US154bn, according to a Boston Consulting Group analysis.

Higher interest rates, which make infrastructure projects more expensive to finance, and uncertainty around the regulatory and budgetary priorities of the Trump administration in the US, factored into the fundraising slowdown, the consulting firm concluded.

However, dealmakers say the asset class could benefit from the US government’s positive overtures toward the artificial-intelligence industry.

The launch in January of Stargate, a joint venture initiative announced by the Trump administration and led by technology investors that include ChatGPT maker OpenAI and SoftBank Group, could steer up to $500 billion of investments into the infrastructure used to power artificial intelligence over the next four years.

The Wall Street Journal