JP Morgan Asset Management, the global investment and wealth management firm, has closed its Asian infrastructure fund – JPMorgan Asian Infrastructure & Related Resources Opportunity (AIRRO) Fund -- at $858.6 million. The fund received commitments from investors, including institutional and high-net worth individuals from the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East, the company said in a statement. The fund has a dedicated team based out of Mumbai, besides offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The fund made its first close at $500 million in August 2008. It focuses on investments in infrastructure assets in India, China and other Southern Asian countries. Reports suggest that the fund is launched primarily as a 10-year closed-end fund with optional provision of two year extension.
AIRRO targets infrastructure assets in the region such as toll roads and other transportation assets, power generation, electricity transmission and distribution facilities, water supply, waste management and social infrastructure including facilities for healthcare and education services, added the statement. It will also look at investments in other related areas in infrastructure.
Speaking on the development, Philip Jackson, chief executive, JP Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets, says that the fund demonstrates the continued expansion and reach of the company into the emerging markets and infrastructure space, complementing its existing suite of real estate and infrastructure strategies that span the risk-return spectrum, the public and private markets and geographic regions of the world.
JP Morgan Asset Management currently has $1.5 trillion assets under management. Apart from equity investments, the firm also offers investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity.
Earlier, the JP Morgan has closed two funds in Asia – one in India and the other in China, on the real estate side. The group closed a $600 million Greater China Property Fund in May 2008 and a similar property fund for India, JPMorgan India Property Fund, at $360 million in 2006. The group was also planning to raise $750 million under a sector-focused fund targeting investments in shipping industry in mid-2009. However, the development of the fund is not known.