M&G appoints infrastructure finance head

M&G Investments, the London-based asset manager, has appointed John Mayhew as head of infrastructure finance within its institutional fixed income unit, PDI sister title Infrastructure Investor reported.

Mayhew joins from Erias Finance, an infrastructure advisory business he founded in 2009, where he was managing director. He will be based in London and report to Simon Pilcher, chief executive of fixed income at M&G. 

“Our clients continue to seek the attractive characteristics infrastructure investments offer, such as inflation-linked income which is common in this market. John has worked closely with owners of infrastructure businesses and has an in-depth understanding of their financing needs,” Pilcher said in a statement. 

Mayhew will lead a team of six focused on originating and managing project finance and infrastructure debt deals. His newly created role will involve working with M&G’s market debt analysts, who focus on public debt issued by utilities and other infrastructure operators.

The firm says it had a long tradition of investing in infrastructure debt, an activity it originally started on behalf of its mother company Prudential, one of the UK’s largest insurers.

Deals recently closed by the team include the provision of a £60 million (€80 million; $91 million) inflation-linked package to refinance five solar farms owned by Primrose Solar, a renewables business backed by US-headquartered York Capital management and UK-based Pioneer Point Partners. 

In 2012, the firm teamed up with Prudential to part-finance the £288 million Victorian Alder Hey Children’s Hospital project, a 270-bed facility due to open this year in Liverpool.