Germany's $681bn Allianz Global Investors seeks Middle East infrastructure deals

Allianz Global Investors is seeking partners for infrastructure and energy sector investments in the Middle East, as the $681 billion asset manager aims to expand its regional portfolio, its chief executive said.

The Europe-focused investment management arm of global financial services group Allianz, which established its first Middle East office in Abu Dhabi in September, is now assessing interest from would-be partners for co-investment propositions, Tobias Pross, chief executive of AllianzGI, told The National on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi Finance Week.

“We want to invest into infrastructure, but that depends, and this is what we are figuring out in phase one, how huge is the appetite to partner,” Mr Pross said.

“We are just setting up a team here, looking into infrastructure opportunities, which is to us is of importance and it's one of our biggest growth segments on the private market side.”

The level of expertise and talent for infrastructure development is already huge in the Middle East, and investors really “don't need us to come in and tell them what to do better. They're really only partnering”, he said.

Co-investment deals can be mutually beneficial as infrastructure development models created in the Middle East can be exported.

Abu Dhabi and the broader Gulf have managed to create super-modern infrastructure and “I truly believe there is a high demand in Europe [for infrastructure], so we also can learn from the region how to build,” Mr Pross said.

“The speed is amazing, and the sky is the limit in this region.”

Across the Middle East and North Africa, national transformation agendas such as Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, Abu Dhabi’s Economic Vision 2030, Qatar’s National Vision 2030, as well as Dubai’s 2040 Urban Master Plan are driving the rapid growth of infrastructure.

Over the past decade, public sector entities and sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf, in particular, have launched mega schemes across sectors including energy, transport, digital infrastructure and social services. The race to become the global AI and data centre hub has driven another wave of infrastructure investments in the Gulf region.

Globally, the cumulative gap between infrastructure supply and demand is forecast to hit $15 trillion by 2040 and requires a significant boost in investment to bridge that, according to a Boston Consulting Group report. The total value of planned large-scale projects until 2030 across the Mena is estimated at $4.1 trillion, 65 of which, or $2.5 trillion worth of projects, are within the Gulf countries.

Tobias Pross, chief executive of Allianz Global Investors at Abu Dhabi Finance Week. Antonie Robertson/The National

Data centres and energy infrastructure

AllianzGI is interested in the investment opportunities in traditional as well as energy infrastructure but finds the data centre space inundated with investment flows.

“I would say the places are really crowded, and you hear that there's a lot of investments ongoing in data centres.