Europe is buoyant. It may be a testament to the success of the infrastructure asset class that such a sentence would otherwise seem odd in current times, but there’s no shortage of confidence at 2018’s European fund management roundtable.

That confidence is well-founded, too, with two managers at the table – Infracapital and InfraVia – closing funds in 2018 worth cumulatively about €4 billion. Another – AMP Capital – is believed to have reached a $1.6 billion first close for its latest flagship vehicle, while our fourth representative – Antin Infrastructure Partners – is at the beginning of what could be a €6 billion fundraising next year.

Indeed, Infrastructure Investor data show what appears a significant recovery for the continent. While Europe-focused fundraising bucked wider global trends by falling more than 40 percent from 2016 to 2017 to $11.89 billion, data for 2018 to the end of Q3 show a rise to $16.72 billion, and that’s before the year is out.

Suffice to say, these managers are well aware of LP demand for the asset class, regardless of the curve balls thrown their way by the macro environment.

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