The EU-China Energy Cooperation: An Institutional Analysis

This study undertakes a more systematic analysis by putting demand and supply of (private) infrastructure investment into a single frame (i.e. percentages of GDP). The approach taken may appear crude and simplistic, and is subject to revision and update. Nonetheless, it is important to form a fuller picture of the situation in order to progress.

Box 3 summarizes some ‘benchmark’ figures to indicate the orders of magnitude in this field.

It presents both global and European estimates. One can draw some conclusions from this exercise.

1. Core projections of future infrastructure investment up to 2030 are 3.7% of GDP globally and 2.6% for the EU for economic infrastructure. Social infrastructure adds about 1%

in Europe. These figures still imply huge amounts of annual investments, with benchmark

34 figures for economic infrastructure of US$ 3300bn globally and nearly € 500bn in the European Union (and over € 650bn when adding social infrastructure).

2. Public infrastructure spending has been on a secular decline in Europe to a level of about 1 1/4% of GDP. Give the fiscal constraints, a continued, if not increasing contribution by the private sector will be required.

3. The main contribution to infrastructure investment comes from the corporate sector, especially listed infrastructure and utility companies. However, capital raising and IPOs have recently been slow on the stock markets in recent times. Unfortunately, the role of smaller companies in this field has hardly been analysed or recognized to date.

4. Dedicated private infrastructure funds have been mushrooming since the mid-2000s.

The annual fundraising of about US$ 20bn is still small but is likely to rise further. About half of the annual deal volume of over US$100bn from such funds goes to Europe, i.e. 0.3% of GDP. They are 90% equity-orientated although a range of debt funds have been launched over the last few years.

5. The role of project finance has been growing in two waves since the 1990. The contribution of 0.4% of GDP covers only roughly 10% of total infrastructure investment, the main sectors being energy (including renewables), oil & gas and transport.

6. Public-private partnerships are an important financing arrangement especially in social infrastructure and transport, especially in the UK, France and on the Iberian, when public loans from government and development banks came to support Overall, the contribution of 0.1% of GDP is still small and can be expanded.

7. Project bonds constituted about 10% of global project debt in the long term but the share was lower in recent years. Europe’s project bond market is rather underdeveloped, and came practically to a halt post financial crisis. There are new encouraging developments underway but it will take some time and effort to develop a sizeable project bond market comparable to, e.g., USA and Canada.

8. Bank loans are the dominant traditional financing instrument in Europe, and it is difficult to see the future for infrastructure investments without a properly working bank lending market. More institutional investors, especially insurance companies and large pension funds, are now attracted by longer-term direct loans in a low interest rate environment, and this market has certainly further potential.

9. Institutional investors are these days being called into increasing their contribution.

Pension funds and insurance companies have started to allocate capital to specialist infrastructure funds as well as directly to projects over the last 10 years. The current allocation is estimated to be about US$ 700bn worldwide, i.e. around 1% of assets and also about 1% of GDP (as a cumulative, not annual value). Furthermore, they have been major (indirect) contributors as shareholders or bondholders of infrastructure companies for some time.

35 10. The perspective here is that the institutional investor could provide some additional contribution to infrastructure finance but expectations need to be realistic. Even a strong shift in the average asset allocation up to 3% or 5% across the board over the next 10 years would imply an annual capital supply of € 30-60bn in Europe, or 0.2%-0.4% of GDP. That is only up to 10% of the projected infrastructure investment requirements.

11. In a nutshell, given the high future infrastructure investment requirement, the public sector can hardly withdraw. On the private side, Europe’s traditional forces of bank lending and corporate capital expenditure will need to keep working, and so does the public sector.

However, there is much scope for an increased contribution of alternative financing arrangements, especially PPPs, and the development of capital markets and instruments, such as project bonds and suitable funds. Institutional investors can play an increasing role but there are investment barriers that need to be recognized, and worked on.

36

Box 3: Demand and supply of infrastructure capital: some benchmark figures

per year World EU/Europe region approx. %

(except)* US$ bn % GDP € bn % GDP of global

US$/ € = 1.4 2011 70000 100% 12600 100%

Infrastructure investment

Historical economic 2400 3.8% 330 2.6% EU 20%

plus social 450 3.6% EU

Future needs economic 3300 3.7% 500 2.6% EU 20%

plus social 600 3.6% EU

Supply of capital

Listed infrastructure & utility stocks market cap* 3000 4% 1000 8% Europe 45%

Utilities capex investment 60 0.5% EU

Infrastructure funds fundraising 20 0.0% 7 0.1% Europe 50%

deal volume 100 0.2% 35 0.3% Europe 50%

Corporate infrastructure bonds market cap* 220 2% Europe

US municipal bonds annual issuance 400 0.6%

Project finance deal volume 375 0.5% 65 0.5% Europe 25%

of which PPP deal volume 75 0.1% 15 0.1% EU 30%

of which project bonds deal volume 20 0.0% 0 0.0% Europe 0%

Rated infrastructure debt average 1983-2012 80 0.1% 24 0.2% Europe 40%

Institutional investors

Institutional assets market value* 70000 100% 14000 110% Europe 28%

Private infrastructure 1% of assets* 700 1% 140 1.1% Europe 28%

Pension funds market value* 300 0.4%

Insurance companies market value* 270 0.4%

SWFs market value* 50 0.1%

Other asset owners market value* 10 0.0%

Asset allocation scenarios for institutional investors Private infrastructure

from 1% to 3% over 10 years annual investment 140 0.2% 28 0.2% Europe 28%

from 1% to 5% over 10 years annual investment 280 0.4% 56 0.4% Europe 28%

Source: Author's rough estimates (see main text for sources and comments)

37