From Barron's Penta blog:
Building Bridges to Future
Wealthy families looking for new investment opportunities should keep an eye on highways, bridges and other infrastructure projects. These already are presenting nice opportunities for institutional investors and they’ll eventually become available to smaller players, says a savvy group of family-office leaders.
Wigmore Association, a collaboration of six chief investment officers from family offices, says infrastructure investments offer solid long-term returns, relatively low risk and hefty dividends.
Wigmore, profiled by Penta last year, represents family offices from North America, Europe, and Australia and meets semi-annually to exchange investment ideas with a global perspective. They gathered most recently in Toronto to discuss economic trends they consider critical for investors.
“Traditional public sector projects like bridges, highways, and hospitals are increasingly being supplemented by new private/public partnerships,” according to a news release from the group.
Rick Pitcairn, a founding member of Wigmore and chief investment officer of family office Pitcairn, tells us that in the aftermath of the financial downturn, “both federal and local governments will have less ability to fund these projects, but no less need.” Wigmore sees especially strong opportunities in energy projects like natural-gas pipelines, which, as Pitcairn points out, are “core investments” in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.. ...MORE
