Golding raises €943m for its largest infrastructure fund of funds

Munich-headquartered Golding Capital Partners has closed its largest infrastructure fund of funds to date.

The alternative asset manager has collected €943 million for Golding Infrastructure 2020, which makes primary and secondaries investments across the infrastructure markets of Europe and North America, according to a statement.

The fund was targeting €700 million, according to data from affiliate title Infrastructure Investor. Predecessor Golding Infrastructure 2018 raised €710 million by its final close in March 2020.

Infrastructure 2020 is aiming to do 15 investments in “conservative” core and core-plus assets, as well as some co-investments, the statement said. It has already done eight deals and is targeting a net annual return of 7 percent to 8 percent.

Golding also raised €578 million for an infrastructure co-investment fund.

“The well-thought-out, systematic structuring of attractive and solid portfolios for our investors has absolute priority for us,” said managing director and co-head of infrastructure Thilo Tecklenburg, adding that Golding prioritises broad diversification by geography and sector.

A follow-up to Infrastructure 2020 is launching in September, with Golding’s debut fund of funds dedicated to the energy transition also about to launch, the statement said.

Energy and infrastructure secondaries accounted for 7 percent of the $53 billion of secondaries deal volume in the first half, according to data from Evercore. Nine percent of the dry powder held by secondaries buyers is earmarked for infrastructure, making it the second-most popular asset class, after buyouts.

In January, Golding closed its first dedicated secondaries fund above target on €280 million, having long invested in secondaries out of its private equity, infrastructure and debt funds of funds.

Golding Secondaries 2019 targets European small- and mid-sized businesses with a focus on sectors with recurring, contractually guaranteed revenues, such as software, technology and healthcare, Secondaries Investor reported.

The fund is structured to combine the higher multiple of GP-led deals with the quicker cashback from LP portfolio sales. Golding is willing to pay “fair prices for high-quality assets”, with less interest in heavily discounted, tail-end dealflow, investment director Thomas Hallinger told Secondaries Investor.