The challenge of infrastructure financing

We argue that in infrastructure there is unfilled demand for financing arising from an almost structural deficiency of infrastructures both in developed markets and emerging markets matched by a limited capacity of financing from the public sector. On the other side of the market, there is unfulfilled supply of funds by the private sector which, in this environment of low rates, is looking for relatively stable and long-term cash flows, which tend to characterize the monetizeable pay-offs of infrastructures. We discuss the conditions to facilitate the meeting of supply and demand. We describe the different risks impinging on the different phases of the construction and operation of infrastructures, and the existing and potential future contractual and regulatory mechanisms to mitigate them.