Macquarie raises $263 million for infrastructure

Macquarie is on the hunt for local and global infrastructure projects after raising $263 million in its Global Infrastructure Fund (GIF).

New projects will join current infrastructure investments in a tunnel linking Detroit in the US with Windsor in Canada; an 1800 km fibre-optic link between Brisbane and Cairns; and a fibre optic link across major centers between Brisbane and Perth.

Most of the money raised will be channeled into OECD infrastructure investments, while about 25 per cent is expected to be invested in Australian projects.

According to Macquarie, this is the first time private equity infrastructure projects have been made available to the retail investor market which contributed $70 million to the GIF fund. More than 3000 retail investors will be granted access to the infrastructure projects which are normally only accessible to wholesale investors.

Macquarie Financial Services group director Andrew Murray says infrastructure is a conservative category of alternative asset class of investments which carries a high risk, high return quality. Murray says the GIF investment satisfies a demand from Macquarie retail clients for niche investments.

To date, investors have paid 60 per cent of the $20,000 or more investments up front, and will be expected to deliver the remaining 40 per cent over the next four years. The fund will run for 10 years and will distribute proceeds to investors as it sells out of each investment, rather than reinvesting money gained. Macquarie is aiming for returns of more than 15 per cent from the GIF investment.