On Wednesday, New York Life Investments, the investment manager of more than $600 billion in client assets on behalf of its parent company, the third-largest life insurer in the U.S., New York Life, announced the official rollout of a thematic infrastructure investment fund. Launched in partnership with CBRE Investment Management through its listed real assets arm, which serves as the fund’s subadvisor, the MainStay CBRE Global Infrastructure Megatrends Fund began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol “MEGI.”
The Fund is a non-diversified, closed-end fund that seeks to provide attractive total returns with an emphasis on current income, by investing primarily in income-producing equity securities issued by infrastructure companies. CBRE Investment Management is actively managing the portfolio with a focus on three infrastructure megatrends that CBRE Investment Management believes are accelerating globally and could drive a multi-decade-long investment supercycle: decarbonization, digital transformation and asset modernization.
The Fund raised $1bn in its initial common share offering, with Morgan Stanley, BoA Securities, Raymond James and Wells Fargo acting as lead underwriters.
“We are excited to build upon our existing partnership with CBRE Investment Management as their team’s experience investing in listed infrastructure and real assets makes them an ideal subadvisor for the Fund,” said Kirk Lehneis, President of the Fund and Chief Operating Officer at New York Life Investment Management. “As global policy supports increased infrastructure investment and historically attractive valuations continue to drive growth potential in the sector, we believe global listed infrastructure has the potential to offer attractive income in client portfolios.”
CBRE Investment Management’s global listed infrastructure investment team, led by Chief Investment Officer of Listed Infrastructure Jeremy Anagnos, Chief Investment Officer of Listed Real Assets Joseph Smith, and infrastructure portfolio managers Hinds Howard and Dan Foley, are managing the Fund’s portfolio.
“With infrastructure entering what we believe to be an investment supercycle, we are thrilled to once again partner with New York Life Investments to offer investors the opportunity to gain exposure to the sector’s long-term investment tailwinds,” CBRE’s Anagnos said in a statement on the Fund launch. “We believe decarbonization, digital transformation and asset modernization are three core infrastructure megatrends that are not just accelerating across the globe today but that have the potential to drive an investment opportunity that may last for years.”
This marks the third mutual fund launched as part of New York Life Investments’ strategic partnership with CBRE Investment Management in the MainStay Fund lineup: the MainStay CBRE Real Estate Fund and the MainStay CBRE Global Infrastructure Fund.
