Swiss Life Asset Managers has established a dedicated infrastructure debt department in Paris to expand its private market offering.
The firm said that “initial investors will be the Swiss Life Group’s Swiss, French and German insurance companies”, and that it will invest €1.5bn in senior debt loans and bonds over the next three years.
Following this, the firm plans to give third-party clients access to the infrastructure debt platform.
The asset manager will offer investors the option to finance infrastructure projects from conception to operation, which will contribute to the development of such projects.
Swiss Life AM said that the infrastructure debt team will provide private and public clients with solutions to finance their existing and future projects.
The first investments under the new framework will be undertaken in 2020. The investment activity will accelerate from 2021 and spread from the European market initially to other markets later on.
Extension of current business
Stéphane Rainard, head infrastructure debt, leads the team on the firm’s expansion plans.
Rainard reports to Daniel Holtz, head credit, who oversees the global co-ordination of the department’s projects and initiatives.
Before joining Swiss Life AM, he held various senior positions at Natixis Investment Managers and worked as a senior portfolio manager at Ostrum Asset Management.
Frédéric Bôl, chief executive of Swiss Life AM, France, said that the new department is “perfectly in line with our environmental, social and governance policies”.
“By widening our infrastructure debt financing expertise, we reinforce our long-term commitment to our institutional partners, the public and private decision makers,” he explained.
As at 31 December 2019, Swiss Life AM managed CHF254.4bn (€236.14bn) in assets for the Swiss Life Group, including over CHF83bn in third-party asset management.
It has invested €700m in infrastructure debt via externally managed and funds run as joint ventures.
The firm also has an infrastructure equity business, with more than €3bn invested in equity and quasi-equity over the past nine years.
