Dealflow | November 1, 2022

BlackRock secures $4.5 billion for its fourth global infrastructure fund

Amy Cortese
ImpactAlpha Editor

Amy Cortese

ImpactAlpha, Nov. 1 – The first close of the BlackRock Global Infrastructure Fund IV, which is targeting $7.5 billion, follows BlackRock’s $5.1 billion global energy infrastructure fund raised in 2020 and now fully deployed.

BlackRock Alternative’s new fund targets opportunities in energy and low carbon power, utilities, transportation and logistics, and digital infrastructure. Spending on clean energy and infrastructure needs to triple to meet net zero targets by mid-century, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook.

While investing in climate solutions, BlackRock acknowledged the fund will also support “the infrastructure needed to ensure a stable, affordable energy supply during the transition” (fossil fuels, anyone?).

Backpedaling

BlackRock’s Larry Fink has been an outspoken proponent of zeroing out carbon emissions. At last year’s COP26, the asset management firm helped launch the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ, set up at the COP26 climate summit.

What a difference a year makes. Fink will skip COP27, which is kicking off in Egypt next week. The war in Ukraine has prioritized energy security. And GFANZ has loosened rules to placate U.S. financial firms that balked at ending fossil fuel investment.

BlackRock told a British parliamentary committee auditing GFANZ that it would not support a net zero scenario that called for no new investment in coal, oil or gas. 

BlackRock Alternatives’ infrastructure platform manages more than $50 billion in assets.