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John Hancock Infrastructure Fund

Year: 2018
Campbell Lutyens was exclusive financial advisor to John Hancock on the raise of its Power and Infrastructure team’s first closed-ended investment vehicle involving third-party capital. The successful close of the US$2 billion fund was the largest secondaries deal in North America in 2018.

Type: Managed Fund Secondary
Year: 2018
Mandate: $2.0 billion
Region: North America
Asset class: Infrastructure & Energy

The fundraise was executed by way of a structured secondary transaction, in which:

  • The client sold-down a portion of its interests in a selection of power and infrastructure assets to seed a newly formed vehicle, the John Hancock Infrastructure Fund
  • Capital was raised to fund the acquisition of these assets as well as to provide fresh capital to execute new investments

The rationale for such setup was that this would be a compelling investment opportunity for the team’s first third party investors, while minimizing the risk associated with a pure blind pool fundraise for a captive investment team with no existing track record of managing third-party capital.

The deal’s innovative structure demonstrated that large-scale asset holders have an alternative to selling assets or spinning out teams, and can instead use assets strategically, while retaining investment talent in-house.

This transaction achieved both Manulife and John Hancock’s objectives, including increasing assets under management, retaining investment talent in-house and setting the team up for future fundraises.