Infrastructure - opportunity for pension funds and insurers?

Banks used to be the principal investor for public-private partnership projects in infrastructure, but their appetite has waned with their need to increase liquidity. With high, potentially inflation-linked returns packaged in long-term cashflows, these might seem the ideal asset for insurers and pension funds – but they must beware of politics. Laurie Carver reports

The state-financed bailouts of the last two years, first of the banking industries and latterly of weaker sovereigns, have left governments wary of spooking the jittery bond market. Deficit reduction is the priority for many countries, most obviously the UK, where austerity is the new buzzword.

One consequence of this is that the public investment in infrastructure that Keynesians would recommend as stimulus to a battered economy is unaffordable. However, at the same time, despite some attempts