Following his appointment in September as the new head of infrastructure investments at Montreal-based Fiera Capital, Bruno Guilmette told Infrastructure Investor that maintaining the long view is vital to success in the asset class.

“The reason I joined is my background includes a lot of infrastructure investments and involvement in infrastructure and energy,” Guilmette said. “I spent essentially the last 25 years building that product offering in the asset class.”

Guilmette’s infrastructure career includes over eight years with Canadian pension La Caisse, heading up the infrastructure investments group at PSP Investments for a decade, and serving on the boards of GIIA, Canada Infrastructure Bank, and an executive role at renewable energy producer Boralex.

“When I started investing in that type of product in the late 90s and early 2000s, that was not an asset class in itself,” Guilmette recalled, noting GIIA was instrumental in helping infrastructure become fully recognised as its own asset class. “I’m happy to be back on the investment side.”

Guilmette said he was excited to work with almost C$5 billion ($3.6 billion; €3.1 billion) of infrastructure AUM across Fiera Capital’s holdings, adding that he was happy to spend his first few weeks on the job “talking to our key investors all over North America and Europe. I’ve also spent quite a bit of time with the team”.

Fiera Infrastructure’s equity investments have primarily come through the open-end, mid-market EagleCrest Infrastructure Fund, which was launched in 2016 and currently stands at C$2.8 billion. The fund has invested across North America and Europe, according to Fiera, primarily in energy transition, transportation, telecommunications and social infrastructure sectors.

“We have a good, solid existing team, and a good portfolio of assets,” Guilmette said. “I am looking forward to growing that platform both on the debt and the equity side.”

Full stack developments

Fiera is seeking to provide a revamped integrated approach to its infrastructure business under Guilmette’s leadership, making it easier for clients “across the capital stack” to enjoy access to infrastructure projects.

In taking up the mantle at Fiera Guilmette is replacing Alina Osorio, who served as president of Fiera Infrastructure since 2016. Osorio, who helped establish Fiera as a leading infrastructure firm.

Fiera declined to comment on the nature of Osorio’s departure.

However, one industry source told Infrastructure Investor there was a difference of opinion in the evolution of the firm’s leadership following the appointment of Guilmette. Osorio remains a shareholder in Fiera Capital and member of both the board of directors and the investment committee, although a call option was exercised to buy her shares in Fiera Infrastructure.

Guilmette indicated that the emphasis will be on growth, while the investment strategy itself will leverage both his own and the team’s expertise to identify the opportunities that “aren’t making the headlines” or are otherwise hidden in the noise of the moment.

Bumps and opportunities

“Our investors are looking for long-term predictable cashflows in key sectors,” he said, calling digital infrastructure and the energy transition key trends. “There’s also a push towards social infrastructure which is needed in many of the OECD countries where we invest. If you look at our portfolio. we’ve already invested in and have platforms that are going to continue to seek investments in those subsectors.”

Those are the trends that really matter in Guilmette’s view, meanwhile there are a series of “bumps” that are introducing short term variability, such as high interest rates, geopolitical instability, and momentary spikes in valuation, but that infrastructure will do what it does best and provide stable long-term returns.

Guilmette sees the energy transition as an area where it is possible to create new investment opportunities, particularly when contemplating the cycles of visibility the sector can pass through.

He recalled an example from his time at PSP: “We invested in airports right after the [Global] Financial Crisis at a good valuation which proved to be a very good investment in the long term, but a number of investors were shying away because of the disruption.”

“Short term bumps can be buying opportunities,” Guilmette said.