Infrastructure not a safe-haven asset, but Asia-Pacific remains a bright spot: KKR

[SINGAPORE] Infrastructure may be widely viewed as a stable asset class with predictable cash flows, but it does not always behave like a safe haven during crises, said Raj Agrawal, global head of real assets at KKR.

“People did poorly during the global financial crisis (GFC), and people did equally poorly – if not worse – during the Covid crisis,” he told The Business Times.

It was during the GFC turmoil that KKR first broke into the infrastructure space, as several infrastructure portfolio companies and managers went bankrupt. It was a surprise at that time as it was thought to be resilient, noted Agrawal.