Seymour said the fund had recruited an associate, Tatjana Van Volten, to source acquisitions and manage assets, an appointment which would fully staff the London office. Although his team can source deals and formulate transactions, “first of all, we’re asset managers. We don’t try to do the job of management [at investee companies],” Seymour said. “For us, asset management is not separate from transactions. We like people who’ve done the transaction to go and live with what they’ve bought.” The “atrocious” market for unlisted assets in 2009 stalled IFM’s fundraising and investment activity in the region. “There was a real mis-match between vendor pricing and what we were prepared to pay. Now there is some recognition – they need capital and can’t afford to wait forever.”

The global infrastructure fund currently maintains a 50/50 exposure to North American and UK and European assets. In the UK, it owns stakes in Anglia Water, the Arqiva TV broadcasting towers and a Welsh utilities business and. In Europe, it invests in the Polish district heating assets run by energy services provider Dalkia. In the US, IFM owns all of North America Energy Alliance, a company which began as a joint-venture with the failed Allco Finance Group in 2007 (IFM bought Allco’s 37.6 per cent stake in 2008), in addition to a stake in Dukuesne, a Pittsburgh-based transmission business, and Colonial Pipeline, which distributes petroleum products among American states. The manager is now looking at early-stage and mature infrastructure, predominantly in developed markets, but it is “comfortable” investing in the right opportunities in Poland and the Czech Republic.