AXA RE appointed to manage AXA’s new €10 Billion infrastructure debt commitment

AXA announced today that it has increased its exposure to the infrastructure debt market with a
commitment to invest up to €10 billion over the next five years and appointed AXA Real Estate to
source and manage those investments. It is in this context that AXA Real Estate, the real estate
arm of AXA Investment Managers, is pleased to announce that it is building up a dedicated team
of high profile infrastructure professionals and has appointed Charles Dupont, to head the new
infrastructure debt platform. Charles Dupont will report to Isabelle Scemama, who is AXA Real
Estate’s Head of Real Asset Finance.
The appointment of AXA Real Estate allows AXA to leverage the strong experience and
capabilities of AXA Real Estate’s long established Commercial Real Estate (CRE) debt team,
which is already the largest investment manager in CRE debt, with a €7 billion debt platform.
On behalf of AXA, AXA Real Estate aims to underwrite infrastructure loans of up to €500 million
backed by assets located in established global economies, with a primary focus on core
European economies. AXA Real Estate has already identified a strong pipeline of potential
investments.
Charles Dupont has over 15 years of experience in infrastructure markets, both within the private
equity side, as well as with major operating infrastructure businesses. Mr Dupont is a graduate of
the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration. AXA Real Estate intends to
further strengthen its Infrastructure team with additional appointments expected in the near future.
Commenting on this investment, Laurent Clamagirand, AXA Group Chief Investment Officer
said: “Our decision to increase our exposure to the infrastructure debt asset class is in line with
our global investment strategy. It meets our need to find long-term investments and diversify our
credit portfolio in order to match the guarantees we offer our clients, and also demonstrates the
role insurance companies can play in financing the real economy.”
Pierre Vaquier, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Real Estate commented:“Having established
AXA Real Estate’s Commercial Real Estate debt platform in 2005, we are now able to leverage
the success and size of that market leading business, to place ourselves at the forefront of the
infrastructure debt investment market.
“Charles has extensive expertise in infrastructure with diversified experience from the various
sides of the business. I am delighted that he is joining AXA Real Estate, complementing the skills
of the teams we have built under Isabelle Scemama’s leadership and is able to contribute to the
launch and subsequent development of this new infrastructure debt investment platform.”
 
AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (AXA Real Estate), a wholly-owned subsidiary
of AXA Investment Managers, is the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, with over
€45 billion of assets under management as at the end of March 2013. It has over 140 third party
institutional clients spread across the world, in addition to managing funds for 10 AXA insurance
companies.
With over 500 real estate professionals operating in 22 countries, AXA Real Estate’s competitive
advantage stems from its global fund management expertise combined with extensive on-the-ground
deal sourcing, asset management and development execution capabilities.
AXA Real Estate structures and actively manages or advises investment products, seeking wide ranging
opportunities along the risk spectrum to deliver targeted returns commensurate with clients’ risk profiles,
through a variety of investment strategies. These range from core to opportunistic, country-specific to
geographically-diversified, sector-specific to multi-sector, with the capacity to invest at all levels of the
capital structure.
Global growth remains a key priority and AXA Real Estate is currently expanding its presence in both
the US and Asia. Assets under management have grown from €17 billion 12 years ago to €45 billion
today.
 
Source : Company