Insights

Opinion pieces from the team, and uses cases covering private markets, infrastructure investment, climate change, social risk, and more.

Featured image for “Comments to House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets on Expanding Private Market Access in Retirement Plans”

Comments to House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets on Expanding Private Market Access in Retirement Plans

Apr. 08, 2025
The EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA) has submitted detailed comments to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets regarding the potential inclusion of private market investments in 401(k) and other retirement vehicles. EIPA’s analysis underscores that while private equity can offer significant diversification benefits, it also introduces complex risks that require robust safeguards to protect individual
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Private Assets Scrutinised

Mar. 21, 2025
The growth in private assets Since 2012, EY estimates that private assets increased their Assets Under Management (AUM) from US$9.7 trillion to US$24.4 trillion by the end of 2023.1 This growth, has seen private managers tap different sources of capital. Starting with traditional investors such as endowments, pension funds and insurance companies, the managers have innovated, identifying permanent sources of
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NAV 2.0: A better asset pricing model for private infra

May. 02, 2024
CAPM may be ‘one of the founding frameworks of modern finance’, but for determining the net asset value of unlisted infrastructure it is terribly inadequate. Frédéric Blanc-Brude, the director of the EDHEC Infrastructure Institute explains why and offers an alternative. Originally published in Infrastructure Investor. When reporting the NAV of unlisted assets like infrastructure using discounted cashflows, best practice consists
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Risk Premia: Good times are over, now it gets harder

Aug. 30, 2023
This is a grim headline, but with the economic shifts over the last two years, we might be seeing a more difficult market for infrastructure investment. From our perspective, we are observing some interesting shifts in the market. Firstly, despite the evidence that inflation may be cooling in major economies, there is evidence that interest rates might be higher for
Featured image for “Is Thames Water just a case of bad management?”

Is Thames Water just a case of bad management?

Jul. 18, 2023
Can you really lose GBP1.5Bn in a couple of quarters when investing in a water utility? Investments in infrastructure like water utilities are very often presented as ‘boring’, slow-moving, low-risk assets, that also happen to be cash cows. That latter point is true, as my colleagues have shown in previous research. The rest is wishful thinking at best, but mostly
Featured image for “Social Acceptability Index Highlights Growing Concerns Over UK Sewerage Sector”

Social Acceptability Index Highlights Growing Concerns Over UK Sewerage Sector

May. 25, 2023
EDHECinfra has created a suite of Social Acceptability Indices. To demonstrate their utility, we thought we would analyse a sector that is always in the news, the UK sewerage sector, where risk just materialised with an expected GBP80m fine of South West Water. If that’s not double materiality, I don’t know what is! For some context, the UK privatised its