Investcorp seeks more global airport and seaport stakes

Reuters/Imago Pictures

• Wants $10bn infrastructure assets
• North American airports targeted
• GCC assets also on wish list

Bahrain’s Investcorp Holdings is looking at investment opportunities in airports and seaports across the world as it seeks to double the infrastructure assets in its portfolio to $10 billion by the end of the decade.

Investcorp, the region’s biggest alternative investment firm, completed a 50 percent acquisition of the New York-based Corsair Capital’s infrastructure business, which includes the airport operator Vantage, in December.

Vantage controls the LaGuardia Gateway Partners consortium, which completed the $5.1 billion Terminal B refurbish at the New York City airport in 2022.

Vantage also controls the $4.6 billion redevelopment of JFK International Airport’s Terminal 6, in which Investcorp has an equity investment.

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“We take a lot of pride in developing JFK and hopefully a lot more from here,” said Hazem Ben-Gacem, co-chief executive officer of Investcorp.

He revealed that potential “top tier” destinations for further investment include more airports in North America and the GCC countries of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.

There are also opportunities in emerging regions including Turkey, Indonesia and Thailand, Ben-Gacem said.

“These are three major destinations where the government has made a conscious decision to pass that transport sector ownership to private hands in some shape or form,” he said.

Investcorp already owns the four main ports in Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. 

Ben-Gacem said the firm will be making an imminent investment “in one of the busiest ports” in the world, without giving further details.

“I think both on the ports and on the airports you’ll probably see Investcorp’s name very actively mentioned and clear in the years to come,” he said.

Investcorp has assets under management worth $50 billion across the GCC, the United States, Europe and Asia, with its infrastructure side amounting to $5.5 billion.

“Transport and logistics are the two anchor parts which you’ll see us active in,” Ben-Gacem said. He said he hoped to raise the contribution of infrastructure in the firm’s portfolio from 10 percent to 15 percent.