An institutional and spatial consideration of markets for financialised infrastructure

Abstract

This thesis examines the contemporary and ongoing financialisation of infrastructure from an institutional and spatial perspective. It brings together the diverse and disconnected literature on infrastructure, markets, institutional capital and the state. More broadly, this research addresses a gap disclosed in the literature on financialisation in general, the financialisation of infrastructure in particular, and the role of private investment capital which, to date, has been criticised for lacking an in-depth and detailed understanding of the institutional drivers that shape the manifestation of contemporary capital markets in an increasingly financialised public space. Its main contributions are to open up the black box of capital by taking a granular approach to the analysis of the institutional actors active in infrastructure investment; particularly highlighting the mediated actions of the state as an investment actor in infrastructure markets. It examines the ongoing engagement with investment markets by state, quasipublic and private institutional actors; and analyses the impact of the spatial derivations of capital on the markets in which that capital is ultimately deployed. This study draws on original empirical research based on qualitative interviews with major institutional investors of equity and debt capital into financialised infrastructure assets and services; including multilateral financial institutions (MFIs), Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), pension and annuity providers, infrastructure funds and private equity firms. It is the proposition of this thesis that the financialisation of everyday utility services represents a locus wherein the state is taking on new and variegated forms to co-invest with and through private capital and to engage with institutional investment markets. It is a lens through which to examine ongoing processes of financialisation. It represents a clear institutional emphasis in the study of spatially variegated infrastructure markets, and charts the transformation of infrastructure from an essential social asset to an equally essential and politicised financial asset class.