As infrastructure funds continue to hit final closes, many above target, a sense of renewed confidence is beginning to fill the sector, industry insiders told this news service.

German fund manager Golding Capital Partners and placement agent DC Placement Advisors (DCPLA) said investors were backing more fundraises after a cautious few years.

Golding’s chief investment officer, Daniel Boege, said this “period of caution” was coming to an end with private markets seeing renewed momentum as investors look less at broad allocation and more at targeted strategies with the right partners.

His comments come amidst a headline close last week from ICG’s second infrastructure equity fund, which raised EUR 3.15bn, exceeding its EUR 2bn target, boosted by the support of more non-European LPs.

And while larger funds can always attract investors, confidence appears to be flowing down to upper mid-market alternative asset managers, such as Golding.

Last week, Golding secured more than EUR 825m for the final close of its Golding Infrastructure 2022 fund of funds, surpassing its initial EUR 700m target.

It was a turnaround for Golding after its first impact fund, Golding Impact 2021, hit final close earlier this year at about EUR 115.5m. It had, however, aimed to close at EUR 200m, having lowered an initial target of EUR 300m.

Golding Secondaries 2022, which has a target of EUR 500m, is due to close in the next few weeks Boege previously told this news service, in what will be a big indicator of progress for the sector.

In a related development last week, US asset manager HarbourVest reached final close at USD 865m on its third close-ended infrastructure secondaries fund.

While HarbourVest Infrastructure Opportunities Fund III (IOF III) raised nearly twice as much capital as its predecessor, IOF II, which closed in 2019 at USD 456m, it fell short of its USD 1bn target.

DC Placement Advisors (DCPLA), which has worked with clients including NextEnergy Capital, Swiss Life, DigitalBridge and most recently ABN AMRO’s German private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe on fund raising, also sees the market improving.

DCPLA Vice President Karan Patodia said the business was having conversations with both European and Middle Eastern institutional investors, both of whom were saying there was a return of confidence.

“There is a clear shift toward specialised strategies and high-calibre managers with the ability to drive real operational value. In contrast, fund managers with ‘undifferentiated or generic’ strategies are finding it difficult to attract LP interest.”

According to Patodia, infrastructure and related strategies were in particular seeing stronger momentum than other areas.

Other infrastructure funds closing above target this year include the Equitix European Infrastructure Vintage fund, which hit final close at EUR 1.4bn, about 40% above its initial target.

Earlier this year, Pioneer Point Partners held final close for its second infrastructure fund, beating its EUR 800m target and reaching its increased EUR 1.1bn hard cap.