Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast
Infrastructure has historically been a sleepy corner of private equity: stable, contractual, but often cyclical enough to make investors wary.
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“Infrastructure has kind of been the nonplayer character of the asset class,” says Allison Kingsley, founder and partner at NOVA Infrastructure, “and now it’s actually in a starring role, and I think in some ways we saw that early.”
NOVA focuses on smaller and mid-market infrastructure businesses, where competition for deals can be limited and a lack of institutional attention can leave some businesses remarkably underdeveloped.
Allison’s cofounder, Chris Beall, says that lack of institutional attention can create unusual opportunities, such as the target company that had yet to hire a chief financial officer.
“I think the primary source of financial expertise on the team was a tax accountant,” Chris says. “One of the phrases we use is, do they know what good looks like in their sector?”
Today on the show, I ask Allison and Chris what good looks like in their corner of the infrastructure market, where they see the biggest opportunities to professionalize smaller businesses, and what those overlooked opportunities can teach us about the next phase of infrastructure investing.
The Private Equity Podcast
In our podcast series, Bain's Hugh MacArthur interviews leading experts on the trends and opportunities that will redefine the private equity industry.