Ten billion dollars. That’s how much two infrastructure funds raised from institutions and wealthy individuals in the past year in spite of the credit crunch.

As fund managers work out how to recession-proof investors’ cash while taking a defensive stance on equities, the frenzy around infrastructure continues as governments and private firms pour trillions into projects worldwide.

The Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) fund, backed by Credit Suisse and General Electric, and a Morgan Stanley-backed fund raised $5.6 billion (£2.8 billion) and $4 billion respectively. At the heart of the funds are airports and shipping ports — GIP owns London City airport and Great Yarmouth port and Argentina’s second-largest port. Morgan Stanley’s fund, meanwhile, has a stake in Venice airport, Italy’s third largest, and the port of Montreal.

Ports and airports are an example of “user-pays” infrastructure projects — as opposed to those such as motorways that may be free — and they are proving to have outperformed the market over a turbulent six months.

Anna Sofat of adviser Addidi said: “Infrastructure is increasingly exciting — the last time we had big investment on this scale was in colonial times of the Empire. Now private investors are really looking at shipping. As commodities are shifted around the world there is going to be much more demand at ports and terminals. The shipping industry is going to come into its own.

“The funds look at airports that cater to business travel, generally smaller airports where you can have high-end travel cheaper and with less hassle.”

Ordinary investors can also get in on the action. First State launched its Global Infrastructure fund last October and Macquarie Global Infrastructure Securities launched in June, both heavily invested in transport. The funds have proved to be safe havens, outperforming the FTSE All-Share index, which fell 1.4%. First State’s fund is up 7.7% and Macquarie’s has risen 4.4%.

We look at five themes that could beat the downturn.

Ports and airports

The fact that there is a limited number of ports and airports allows increases in costs such as commodities to be passed on to “captive” customers.

At the same time, the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to finance the projects provides the security of having government involvement.

Sofat said: “Investment banks are now looking to PPPs to replace structured products and sub-prime mortgages.”

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