The management of Foresight Group, the London-listed infrastructure and renewables investment manager, is exploring a potential sale that could see the business taken private, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Founder and chairman Bernard Fairman, who is the largest shareholder in the listed group, has been driving a sale as he seeks an exit himself, and has been soliciting interest from potential buyers, the sources said.

Fairman, who stepped back from the chief executive’s role this June, when CFO Gary Fraser was promoted to chief executive, has long considered a sale of the asset manager, sources added.

The potential sale comes amid a wave of infrastructure-focused asset managers being taken over by bigger groups, such as the sale of SUSI Partners to Gresham House last week.

Foresight declined to comment on queries for this article.

As of the end of March this year, Fairman owned around 28% of the shares in Foresight through Beau Port Investments, and together with a concert group also including Fraser and chief investment officer David Hughes, had a controlling stake of 34.5%.

The other shareholders with more than 5% in Foresight are UK asset managers Slater Investments and Liontrust Asset Management, according to the company’s annual report for the year to 31 March 2025. The remaining shares are held by institutional investors and private individuals.

UK-headquartered Foresight had GBP 13.2bn in assets under management at the end of its FY25 financial year, including GBP 10.2bn in the infrastructure segment globally. The infrastructure assets include energy transition, natural capital and social, transport and digital infrastructure across Europe and Australia.

Foresight Group has a market capitalisation of GBP 541m. Together with net cash of GBP 24m as reported in the latest annual report, its enterprise value comes to GBP 517m.

Several senior executives have left the firm in recent months, including Ricardo Piñeiro and Chris Holmes, both partners and co-heads of infrastructure.

Foresight manages a mix of listed and unlisted funds across infrastructure, renewables, venture capital and private equity.