(Re)Read the EDHEC Infra & Private Assets special issue of P&I's Research for Institutional Money Management

The EDHEC Infra & Private Assets Research Institute is a research center of EDHEC Business School dedicated to advancing knowledge in asset pricing and credit risk for private infrastructure investments. Combining academic rigor with practical business applications, it continuously produces ground-breaking research to document the risks, financial performance, and climate impacts of investments in private markets, including private equity and unlisted infrastructure equity and debt, delivering valuable insights to both academia and industry.

An overview of this special issue

In the latest IPE supplement, the eleven Institute's researchers analyse ESG risks and their consequences for investors, assess the investment impact of climate risk on global infrastructure, and share their latest research findings on infrastructure investment portfolio construction and risk management.

• To download the supplement all at once, follow this link

In detail, the issue presents comprehensive analyses on the following areas:

1. ESG Risks and Infrastructure: The first two articles focus on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges facing infrastructure investments. The initial study critically evaluates the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities, highlighting its limitations in assessing the sustainability of infrastructure assets. The subsequent article introduces Social Risk Sector Ratings, using a case study of the UK water sector to demonstrate the impact of social acceptance on infrastructure investment risks.
2. Climate Risk and Global Infrastructure: The next two articles delve into the financial implications of climate risks for infrastructure. The first paper addresses the significant financial threats posed by both physical and transition risks associated with climate change. The following article presents a survey revealing the concerns of the international investment community regarding the adequacy of available data on these risks, which could reduce portfolio values by up to 54%. Concerned investors express little confidence in the advice and data they are currently receiving.
3. Infrastructure Investment Strategies: The final section of the issue offers insights into infrastructure portfolio construction and risk management. One article analyzes Thames Water, illustrating how early comparative analysis could have predicted the company's high-risk, low-return profile. The concluding paper explores strategies for achieving diversification in unlisted infrastructure investments, emphasizing the effectiveness of a "Smart Infra" approach that diversifies factor risks despite the illiquidity challenges of the asset class.

Discover the articles one by one

• “Using Taxonomies to Qualify the Sustainability of Infrastructure Investments” by Nishtha Manocha, and Rob Arnold

• “Social Risk Indexing and Rating for Infrastructure Investors: The Case of the UK Water Sector” (p.6) by Jeanette Orminski

• “Computing Extreme Climate Value for Infrastructure Investments: Asset Pricing Applied to NGFS Phase 4 and Oxford Economics Scenarios to Measuring Climate Risks at the Asset Level” by Bertrand Jayles, and Jianyong Shen

• “Physical Climate Risk Survey: Those in the Infrastructure Investment Industry are Concerned and Lack Data” by Noël Amenc, Frédéric Blanc-Brude and Alice James

• “Low Tide: Benchmarking Risks in Infrastructure Investments: What the Data Showed about Thames Water” by Frédéric Blanc-Brude, Abhishek Gupta, and Tim Whittaker

• “Achieving Diversification in Unlisted Infrastructure Investment: A Smart Infra Portfolio Construction” by Frédéric Blanc-Brude, Abhishek Gupta, and Moataz Farid