Ardian has launched Ardian Access Infrastructure SICAV-RAIF, a Luxembourg-domiciled evergreen vehicle designed to give institutional and private wealth clients broader access to the firm’s global infrastructure and infrastructure secondaries strategies. The fund, available only to professional investors, is part of Ardian’s broader Ardian Access platform, which offers dedicated solutions to expand access to Ardian deal flow for institutional and private investors.
The firm said the new vehicle is structured to help investors diversify existing private infrastructure exposure by combining direct infrastructure investing with infrastructure secondaries. Ardian said its Infrastructure team manages over $45 billion in assets under management, with more than 20 years of track record, while its Secondaries team has $101 billion in assets under management and is considered one of the largest secondary infrastructure platforms in the market.
Ardian Access Infrastructure is intended to blend direct exposure to essential, asset-intensive infrastructure with secondary positions designed to expand diversification and help reduce J-Curve effects. Ardian said the approach seeks to provide investors with access to high-quality assets that aim to deliver recurring yield, potential inflation protection, and resilient returns, alongside GP portfolio exposure that is scalable, well diversified, and high quality.
The fund is expected to build diversified exposure across sectors and geographies and is projected to gain exposure to more than 20 underlying infrastructure assets within a short timeframe, Ardian said. The firm cited examples of strategic assets including Heathrow airport and Verne, a sustainable data center platform, while noting the assets referenced are illustrative.
Ardian said the vehicle will provide investors exposure to its infrastructure strategy focused on essential, asset-intensive companies across three verticals: energy, digital infrastructure, and transport. The firm said its infrastructure team includes more than 70 dedicated investment professionals across eight offices in Europe and the Americas, and that the fund aims to allocate globally alongside Ardian’s infrastructure funds, including its recently closed $20 billion platform, which is expected to invest predominantly in Europe.
On the secondary side, Ardian said the fund will tap its infrastructure secondary platform, part of a broader secondaries business it describes as the largest globally with $101 billion in assets under management. The platform is supported by more than 100 investment professionals across 14 offices, including 35 infrastructure specialists, and is positioned as a source of infrastructure co-investment opportunities with an emphasis on cash flow generation and J-curve mitigation features that support scalability.
Ardian said Ardian Access Infrastructure will feature accessible minimums of €100,000 and immediate capital deployment from day one, aiming to maximize compounding and limit cash drag.
The firm launched the fund in partnership with iCapital, which will provide servicing and technology solutions for evergreen funds to help wealth managers and their clients access the strategy more efficiently. The fund is managed by Carne Global Fund Managers (Luxembourg) S.A., with Ardian acting as delegated portfolio manager, and the vehicle has a stated term of 99 years.
KEY QUOTES:
“Alongside private equity, we have seen growing demand among private wealth investors to access the full breadth of private markets, especially infrastructure. Ardian Access Infrastructure offers these clients with unparalleled exposure to the most attractive features of direct and secondary infrastructure. The fund benefits from full value and yield creation through direct investments, and additional diversification and J-curve mitigation through secondary exposure. With a high-quality, diversified seed portfolio of assets, the teams will continue to invest in major global trends such as digitalization, energy transition, and governmental infrastructure investment programs.”
Erwan Paugam, Head of Private Wealth Solutions and Senior Managing Director, Ardian
“As one of the market leaders, what we have observed is that infrastructure is an asset class which can provide features to investors such as: recurring cash yield, inflation protection, resilience and historically lower correlation and volatility compared to some other asset classes. Therefore, we believe it is an attractive addition to investor portfolios.”
Daniel Von Der Schulenburg, Head of Infrastructure Germany, Benelux & Northern Europe and Senior Managing Director, Ardian
“Our infrastructure secondary platform brings together global scale with local insight. Through this latest evergreen vehicle, we are pleased to be able to allow more investors to benefit from the reach one of the world’s largest secondary platforms which is supported by an international team of over 100 investment professionals across 14 offices.”
Marie-Victoire Rozé, Deputy Co-Head of Secondaries & Primaries and Senior Managing Director, Ardian
