Insurer plans to loan €10bn to projects over five years
AXA plans to lend €10bn to infrastructure projects over the next five years.
The insurer has said it intends to make individual loans of up to €500m to finance projects ranging from airports and tunnels to wind farms and sewers.
The plans would amount to a more than tenfold increase in the company’s exposure to infrastructure debt, which currently totals about €1bn.
Axa’s initial focus will be on infrastructure loans in continental Europe but the French insurer will also consider prospective investments in the UK and, in future, in Asia and the US.
Axa chief investment officer Laurent Clamagirand said it was keen to capitalise on the deleveraging of banks, and had been attracted to infrastructure projects because their predictable cash flows matched its long-term liabilities.
Axa’s investment will come from its own insurance business not from finances that are managed on behalf of third parties by its investment management arm.
As well as investing in new projects, some of the €10bn will be used to buy outstanding loans.
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