Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Antin Infrastructure Partners
Alain Rauscher (PDG d'Antin) : "Pour un investisseur ambitieux, Antin est une bonne option !"
A l'occasion des résultats annuels records d'Antin Infrastructure Partners, une société de capital-investissement axée sur l'investissement en infrastructures, son cofondateur et PDG, Alain Rauscher, était l'invité de l'émission Ecorama du 10 mars 2025, présentée par David Jacquot sur Boursorama.com. Retour sur les projets emblématiques financés et sur les opportunités à venir.
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About Alain Rauscher
Alain Rauscher, co-founder and CEO of Antin Infrastructure Partners, discussed the firm's record annual results and investment strategy in a March 2025 interview. He stated that Antin invests in energy and environment, digital infrastructure, and transport, with a focus on renewable energy, fiber optics, and rail. Rauscher noted that artificial intelligence is expected to increase pressure on energy production by approximately 10% over the next 10 to 20 years in the United States. He also said that Chinese battery manufacturers have a 10-to-20-year lead over European and American producers. In June 2024, Rauscher announced Antin's €1 billion investment in Proxima, a project to operate high-speed trains on the Atlantic line in France, with trains ordered from Alstom. He attributed the project's viability to experienced leadership, including former SNCF executive Rachel Picard, and to the line's strong demand from commuters. Rauscher expressed concern about the political and economic climate in France, stating that the business world needs stability and visibility, and described some political proposals as generating "an eruption of anxiety and potential violence." In September 2021, Rauscher led Antin's listing on Euronext Paris, describing the move as a way to gain visibility and provide capital access for new partners while retaining majority ownership.
Transcript (31 segments)
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Interviewer0:07
Your guest now in the big live interview on Boursorama is Alain Rauscher. Hello, hello, thank you for being with us on Boursorama. CEO of Antin Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in infrastructure, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 2021. Tell us a little bit about what type of infrastructure: health, social, energy, where do you invest?
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Alain Rauscher0:07
So we invest in four major sectors. First, energy and environment. We invest a lot in renewable energies, whether in the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany, among others.
We invest in digital, so we are a very large investor in fiber optics in particular, but also in digital display companies, notably in Great Britain and America.
Then transport is very important for us. For example, we have fleets of specialized ships that carry salmon from sea farms worldwide to processing plants on the coast. Rail is very important, especially in Great Britain and Germany, including electric vehicle charging systems in France, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal. And a lot of activity with TGV in France, where we created a company called Proxima that will develop transport on the Atlantic coast of France.
And then social, with things like pharmacies, Hippocrate, Babilou daycare centers, and many other things. So a very diversified activity.
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Interviewer0:07
So I saw that 60% of investments are made in Europe, and the rest is what? The United States. So Europe and the United States. In emblematic projects that you finance or will finance, because you were just talking about TGV, that's it: 1 billion euros to buy 12 latest-generation Alstom TGV trains for Proxima, right? That's the first French competitor to the SNCF, actually.
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Alain Rauscher2:31
Well, we are actually buying 12 latest-generation TGV trains from Alstom. We signed the contract about a month and a half ago. It will be from 2028; it takes a very long time to build. And on this line, which is a very busy and developing line, we will represent about 3% of traffic. So that gives an idea of the scale. We are not a direct competitor like others; we will be a complement.
Why invest in a particular project? It's not just about return on investment. We pass all projects through what we call our 'infra test'. We look for the following characteristics: essential services to the community, whether water, urban lighting, trains, transport, etc. Second, assets with natural barriers to entry; we don't enter hyper-competitive activities where anyone can start tomorrow. Third, activities with high capital barriers to entry; we look for things that require a lot of capital investment. Fourth, we look for activities with predictable and stable cash flows, aside from any transformation through acquisition or organic growth. This is reflected in the fact that most of our contracts are private and protect against inflation. And finally, we need a significant base for growth, an important growth potential. That's what we call infrastructure, and then we apply this to different asset classes, leading to performance.
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Interviewer2:31
So I don't know if it's true, but on which segment, which fund, I saw that some of your funds generated returns of 20% per year. Yes, that's right, absolutely.
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Alain Rauscher2:31
So if we look at our funds, we have closed and are launching our fifth vintage, the fifth fund, which is a fund of over 10 billion euros. We closed it roughly—pardon me, you say it modestly, but you raised, for a French company, it's a 'cocorico' moment: it's the largest infrastructure fundraise in the world in 2024. A French company, 10 billion euros, a world record. What does that mean? First, it means we are in very global markets. I like the 'cocorico' very much, it's very nice, but fundamentally, if we were a fund that only invested in France, we would have great success raising a billion. So we are among the winners of an open world where we can invest. Obviously, our domestic market is not France at all; it's Europe. We can invest absolutely anywhere in Europe very easily, and America is also an extremely important market. So 'cocorico' simply reflects that we meet considerable needs that states can no longer finance. With what's happening today, it will be even less the case tomorrow. States are indebted under budgetary pressure; that's an opportunity for us.
Totally, totally, provided that the situations are not so desperate for the states that they are so poorly managed that they might, for example, in the social sector, make thoughtless cuts. In France, we say 'coup de rabot'—a thoughtless reduction. So the limit of the model is that we need states that we can complement to provide solutions. I think daycare centers are a very good example. Municipalities no longer have the financial means to fund all daycare centers, not to mention liability issues, so they tend to subcontract to private operators. That's one example among 50,000.
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Interviewer2:31
You haven't invested in electric batteries, that's true. Why not?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
Batteries—we have, you know, in France there is a company, Verkor, which is a great company. You mentioned it, so I confirm. But fundamentally, we aim for very high performance, and we are not sure we can achieve that performance with a business like that. You felt it from the beginning because there was enormous enthusiasm before realizing that the market is starting more slowly. The enthusiasm for the product—the migration to clean electric vehicles—I share that as a citizen. But we look at the numbers, and I understand very well that we want European champions. But the reality of the market is that you have battery manufacturers in China, in particular, who have 10, 15, 20 years of lead over European or American battery manufacturers. I'm talking about batteries. So no, not at all. After that, I think it could work very well, but I don't think it meets our criteria in terms of risk and profitability. But I wish them great success, of course.
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Interviewer2:31
Digital, AI, we have the images behind you. Do you invest a lot, and where?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
We invest in a bias towards data centers, essentially. Given that today we are in a rather paradoxical situation: something very dematerialized, yet AI will have an impact on the most concrete, down-to-earth, traditional economies imaginable. That is, real estate: you need a lot of space, build a lot of space to house data centers, cooling systems, which are absolutely enormous challenges. Electrification—you get the impression when talking about electrification that we are talking about France or the United States in the 1850s. We are facing a considerable need for new energy.
And behind AI, there is all that: a huge increase. In the United States, to give a small figure, it is estimated that AI will put pressure on energy production of about 10% in the next 10 to 20 years. To meet the needs generated by AI, we need to increase the power plant fleet by 10%, which is absolutely enormous. We have seen companies like Microsoft buying sites of former nuclear plants like Three Mile Island, which is very well known in the US for having had a serious problem 50 years ago. We see the trajectory: nuclear will not be a short-term answer, but only a very long-term one. So there is a lot of room for that. It's real estate, a lot of energy, and all energies are welcome in the short, medium, and long term.
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Interviewer2:31
Out of the 33 billion, what is the share related to new technologies, AI, etc.?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
I would say it's about a third, roughly a third. A third evolves in that sector. The rest? We have very strong positions, for example in Great Britain with a company called CityFibre, which we bought jointly with Goldman Sachs, a very important company. Also in the US and other countries. And for the rest, we have a huge transport activity, extraordinarily varied, whether in rail, where we are very large investors, or energy, a considerable sector with renewable energies essentially today. We used to do fossil fuels not long ago, but now we only do renewables. For example, we have a company called Blue Elephant Energy in Germany, which is doing very well. We recently bought Origis in Spain and in the US. So just a few portfolio companies, but they are very strong.
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Interviewer2:31
How long do you usually stay invested?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
We stay quite a long time, typically between 4 and 6 years, even 7 years, depending on the work to be done before considering a sale. It's very variable. You say, 'Now I sell because the profitability is consistent with what you expected.' We try to see the work accomplished. If we think we have done a good part of the journey and we will pass the asset to other shareholders who can continue it in good conditions, we think it's a good time. It's not just a question of price; it's a moment when we say we have done a lot of work that allows us to value the asset well for someone else in the long term. Then there is a decision: keep the asset very long term via a longer-term capital structure, or sell it when it seems appropriate, which is our main model. What is true is that since COVID, we have observed a lengthening of holding periods across the alternative industry. Typically, we were around 4 years on average across all sectors, infra and others. Now we are more like 6 years, simply because COVID disrupted the market, then the conflict in Ukraine raised interest rates, impacting exits. But overall, we are a bit longer today, but we will converge back to 4-5 years.
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Interviewer2:31
Your fund performance: I mentioned 20% per year on average. What are your fund performances?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
The performances since we started: there are two funds that have been liquidated, Fund 1 and Fund 2, which had quite comparable performances: a gross IRR of around 25-26% and a money multiple of 2.6 times. So that means for every 100 invested, we got 260. That's a very strong performance. The duration of the fund is 10 years. So everyone did well on Funds 1 and 2. Funds 3 and 4 are very good vintages. Fund 5 is being deployed, about 40% deployed. Fund 5 is the famous 10 billion euros. Of that 10 billion, 1 billion is for the trains for Proxima, and the other 9 billion are deployed at 40%. On what? There are many different investments, including a company called Consilium, which invests in security systems on ships, on very large cargo ships, with lots of sensors to ensure no fire or smoke issues. Another example is a company that builds modular buildings used in Great Britain and Nordic countries for clinics, hospitals, schools, care centers. You stack the boxes; it's very fast, very inexpensive, and avoids going through all the building permit processes, which are very restrictive in those countries. Those are examples of investments.
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Interviewer2:31
You published your results a few days ago. Very good year, we can even say excellent: record net profit, record EBITDA, record revenue, best performance in the history of Antin Infrastructure Partners.
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Alain Rauscher2:31
Yes, it's the best. Even though we are always frustrated because we always think about what's coming next; that's our job as investors. So we are very happy with what we have accomplished. Now we have raised this fund, it's 40% invested, we need to continue investing. Are there opportunities? Yes, the market is extremely active. We have Funds 3 and 4, which are in a phase of continued investment partly and divestment for some assets. We have indicated that we will do two to three exits in 2025, that's our objective. And we have developed other strategies: a mid-cap fund of 2.2 billion euros in investment phase, and a next-generation fund of 1.1 billion euros in deployment phase. So many challenges for us.
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Interviewer2:31
When I see, and it may seem curious given everything we've said—record year, record fundraising—when we look at the stock price, which was over 30 euros three years ago when you were listed, perhaps at a very favorable time, today it's at 12 euros. What happened? Why does the market undervalue you? Personally, I prefer to invest in your funds that return 25% per year rather than in the stock. And I think you see it from my perspective. You can do both, you can do both as an individual. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself; I need to check a bit. We are working on a retail offering for individuals, but it's a bit early; we'll get there.
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Alain Rauscher2:31
So what explains the stock performance? For me, it's relatively simple. First, we came to the market at the peak, in September 2021, a time when markets thought there was superior growth potential in Europe compared to the US because the market was stronger and more fragmented in private equity broadly. At that time, companies were valued at a P/E of 40, while Americans were valued at 22-20. So we went up, you passed 36 euros, we went up 50% in a few months just on demand. Then with the conflict in Ukraine, there was a readjustment of priorities and valuations by the market. Is there proven superior growth potential in Europe? The markets said not really, so we had a de-rating to 22 times, which is the case today. So we are undervalued? We are never well-valued enough, but there are reasons we were very highly valued at the end of 2021.
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Interviewer2:31
And so for the savers watching us, what potential for appreciation given everything we've said? Why or why not have Antin Infrastructure Partners stock in a portfolio?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
I would say that Antin allows exposure to a management company that invests in an extraordinarily important theme: infrastructure. It's not just bridges, tunnels, highways. I emphasized the importance of energy for artificial intelligence, for example. The capital invested in AI-related infrastructure is absolutely enormous, in the hundreds or trillions of dollars. So it's a very promising theme. Second, what really drives the company's life is the evolution of exits, new investments, good fund exits, and preparation for future funds. So if you choose an ambitious investor with consistent performance and a desire to grow, I think Antin is a good option.
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Interviewer2:31
And so how to refocus on a trajectory? What needs to be delivered to the market for a better momentum to start?
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Alain Rauscher2:31
I think we suffer today from a specific factor: large fundraisings like the one for Fund 5 have a step-change impact. The idea is that we cannot completely smooth our results year after year because operating results will mechanically jump when there is 10 billion at once. So we are valued on the underlying, but the real challenge for us is to smooth our results so that each year there is good news, making our results evolution more linear, as is the case for large American alternatives.
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Interviewer2:31
Thank you very much. Thank you for this interview. Alain Rauscher, CEO and co-founder of Antin Infrastructure Partners, was our guest on the big live interview on Boursorama. Thank you, thank you very much.