New AIMCo team to bolster Infrastructure & Renewable Resources investing
AIMCo clients may have heard about a new team formed late in the fall called the Value Creation and Asset Management (VCAM) team that is embedded in the Infrastructure & Renewable Resources asset class. AIMCo has made over a dozen large direct principal infrastructure and renewable resources investments across multiple sectors and geographies, with assets under management more than doubling over the past five years. At the same time, the investment thesis increasingly relies on active management. For example, platform companies (like Eolia, sPower and Howard Energy) are expected to generate growth opportunities that require significant time and attention.
As a result, there are numerous opportunities to create and protect value by enhancing knowledge sharing across the Infrastructure team, executing cross-portfolio initiatives and working with portfolio company management teams to make operational improvements.
Late last year Jon Reay left his role as AIMCo’s Chief Compliance Officer to take on leadership of the VCAM team. Reay had previously worked extensively with the Infrastructure & Renewable Resources group as a deal lawyer and has supported many private and public investment transactions. Through his role as Chief Compliance Officer, he led the growth of the compliance team as it became increasingly responsible for regulatory compliance and operational due diligence.
Regardless of market conditions, the assets AIMCo has acquired require significant, and often dedicated, active management in order to add value for clients or mitigate downside risks. These investments require hands-on active management whether market conditions are frothy (and the team needs to extract every ounce of value-add) or when dealing with COVID-19-related challenges to protect and maintain value. The deal teams currently carry out these active management responsibilities, but the attention they devote to value creation and asset management tends to detract from their ability to source and execute new deals. AIMCo’s peers and many fund managers struggle with the same tension and have established dedicated value creation teams to focus on creating value at portfolio companies and provide staffing leverage to their deal teams.
The new VCAM team has a broad mandate to drive value creation activities across the existing global Infrastructure & Renewable Resources portfolio and assist in the evaluation of potential investment opportunities. The team is to provide assistance throughout the investment lifecycle, conducting due diligence, actively monitoring portfolio companies, leading operational change and implementing best-in-class practices to drive strong results.
The goals of the new team include reviewing all successful and unsuccessful deals and all exited direct and co-investments, enhancing and improving standardized asset management framework and processes, and ensuring that relevant information and ideas are continuously shared across the team. The VCAM team also aims to routinely generate ideas to create value at portfolio companies and contribute to the Infrastructure & Renewable Resources group’s comprehensive strategy.