(Reuters) -Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management said on Friday it had raised $28 billion for its largest-ever fund, wagering on infrastructure assets the company believes would benefit from a shift to “deglobalization”, given recent geopolitical tensions.
Infrastructure investments typically offer better protection from market volatility and economic turbulence. Since last year, a dearth of opportunities for dealmaking in other sectors has further boosted the appeal of such investments.
Brookfield said the fund has already deployed 40% of its capital in six investments including renewable, transport, data center and telecom tower assets.
The company, which manages over $850 billion in assets, said it had also raised $2 billion for related co-investment vehicles.
Opportunities arising out of “deglobalization” would be one of the themes the fund would focus on, Brookfield said.
Over the past year, geopolitical tensions such as Russia’s war on Ukraine and the recent conflict in the Middle East have prompted fierce debate on the fate of globalization. Worried about the economic fallout of geopolitical instability, businesses and governments are looking at ways to diversify their supply chains.
Some businesses are responding by “nearshoring” – locating manufacturing capacity closer to their home markets – to keep supply chains more stable.
Besides “deglobalization”, Brookfield’s latest fund will also focus on infrastructure assets tied to digitalization and decarbonization, the company said.
The fund had initially set a target of $25 billion. Most of the capital has been raised from existing investors, including public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, endowments, foundations and family offices, Brookfield said.
The company had raised $20 billion for its previous global infrastructure fund in 2020.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)