This article appeared on Signal, a capital markets compass, at 3:10 p.m. on June 2, 2026.
"The concept of infrastructure is expanding beyond traditional assets, with new markets such as smart cities, intelligent transportation systems, and digital infrastructure growing rapidly."
Andrew Olinick, Head of Private Equity (PE) and Infrastructure-Adjacent Investments at Macquarie Asset Management, said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on Tuesday that "as project scale and complexity increase, outsourcing trends will grow." He noted that advances in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), and urban development are expanding the scope of infrastructure and accelerating innovation.
Olinick emphasized that Macquarie Asset Management possesses differentiated expertise, backed by more than 30 years of experience in the field. "Drawing on our experience executing infrastructure investments around the world, we have a deep understanding of key trends and growth drivers," he said. Macquarie Asset Management has more than 400 infrastructure investment professionals, over 1,000 support staff, and more than 180 infrastructure portfolio companies.
Olinick specifically pointed to infrastructure-adjacent companies that can generate stable returns while offering abundant opportunities for additional value creation. As investment demand in infrastructure continues, the growth of related companies is also expected to continue. "Infrastructure-adjacent companies are not infrastructure assets themselves, but they are closely linked to the infrastructure value chain," he said. "They are uniquely positioned to benefit from the long-term growth trends in the infrastructure sector."
The infrastructure-adjacent companies Olinick highlighted primarily provide essential services such as power grid maintenance and repair, road safety systems, predictive maintenance support, testing and inspection, and energy efficiency management. They are classified as adjacent companies because infrastructure systems cannot operate safely and efficiently without them.
These companies are seen as combining stability and profitability. "They possess the defensive characteristics of infrastructure—long-term demand, essential service nature, and recurring revenue structure—along with the growth and value creation potential offered by PE," Olinick said. He added, "Even market-leading companies that already have strong fundamentals can pursue additional value creation opportunities through operational improvements, geographic expansion, and the adoption of new technologies."
As an example, Olinick cited Company A, a U.S.-based power services business. Company A partners with privately owned power utilities to strengthen grid resilience and support continuous upgrades through maintenance and repair of power networks. While it does not directly own power grid assets, it provides essential services to power-related companies, including modernizing aging infrastructure.
After investing in Company A, Macquarie Asset Management steadily expanded the business by extending its geographic reach, growing long-term contracts with clients, and enhancing safety and workforce capacity. This led to improvements in operational performance and increased profitability. "It is a representative investment case that combines the defensive characteristics of infrastructure-linked demand with Macquarie's PE approach, which centers on value creation opportunities," Olinick said.
