CenterSquare Investment Management, the real asset investment boutique for BNY Mellon, has launched an institutional investment strategy that invests in global infrastructure via publicly traded companies.
The investment universe for the strategy comprises companies throughout the world that manage, own or develop long-term real assets related to energy, communications, water, transportation, and other systems essential to a functioning economy. Within this universe, CenterSquare is focused on companies managing real assets with strong cash flow visibility, low direct commodity exposure, long duration contracts, and a steady long-term demand outlook.
“Global infrastructure assets are vital to economies worldwide and yet are significantly underfunded and underdeveloped,” said Todd Briddell, chief executive officer and chief investment officer for CenterSquare. “We see an opportunity to manage a liquid alternative asset class that features strong and historically stable yields and is poised for growth, driven by both economic and secular trends.”
Briddell said the global listed infrastructure strategy is a natural extension of CenterSquare’s expertise in listed real estate. “As in listed real estate, the return and risk characteristics of global infrastructure securities are based on the underlying real assets,” said Briddell.
CenterSquare’s global listed infrastructure team is led by portfolio managers Maneesh Chhabria, who was instrumental in the development of CenterSquare’s global real estate investment trust (REIT) platform in 2006, and Joshua B. Kohn, an energy investment specialist who joined the firm from Turner Investments.
CenterSquare has also brought in Theodore Brooks, III, previously a director of equity research at the power and utilities group at Barclays Capital, and Marshall E. Reid, previously a senior investment manager at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
CenterSquare was founded in 1987 and offers a variety of real asset strategies and products. CenterSquare manages approximately $6.8 billion in public real estate securities through CenterSquare Investment Management, Inc. and approximately $1.5 billion (gross) in debt and private equity real estate investments through CenterSquare Investment Management Holdings, Inc. (together referred to as “CenterSquare”), as of September 30, 2014. It manages investments for institutional investors and high net worth individuals throughout global markets and across public and private capital sectors. It is one of the investment boutiques of BNY Mellon Investment Management.