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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Delegates at the recent Opalesque Frankfurt Roundtable say the "party is over" in infrastructure investing. Is it possible that aspect of 'Germany Inc.' may finally be slowing down?

Well only partly. "We are not adding money to infrastructure anymore, not because we believe that the party is over, but because it has become too expensive from a risk-return point of view," said Amin Obeidi, CAIA, Senior Asset Manager Pensions, Nokia. "We've already seen the big insurance companies setting up their own infrastructure teams so that they don’t need funds as intermediaries anymore and can do direct investments."

This few tracks with some of the recent data released about private funds and infrastructure investing in Germany. According to Preqin, as of June fundraising has declined from six funds closing in 2013 raising an aggregate €2.7bn, to three funds closing last year raising €700mn; so far this year there have been no unlisted infrastructure funds closed targeting Germany. The largest German infrastructure fund closed to date was AXA Infrastructure Generation III, run by French investment firm Ardian. The fund closed on €1.5bn.

Obeidi says capacity in infrastructure investing is very limited, and we are now in a cycle where peopl......................

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