Airport operators and investors SWOT Analysis – Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP)/BlackRock

This, the fourth in a series of SWOT analyses of the major players in the global airport M&A market, looks at a well known firm and its various funds: Global Infrastructure Partners, or 'GIP' as it is acronymically known.

The New York-based investor, with four fully invested funds to its credit, has been on the scene for almost 20 years. The majority of its investments are in the energy sector, but analysts are always on the lookout for it when a potential new deal is in the offing.

And yet it is not as 'big' as some might think, and its notable acquisitions in the UK (in London and Edinburgh) have been wholly or partly divested as it latterly formed a working partnership with VINCI Airports on two of them; a liaison which could perhaps continue elsewhere in the future.

That future will, for the most part, be dictated by its relationship with the giant asset manager BlackRock, which completed its takeover of GIP at the beginning of Oct-2024. GIP will take the infrastructure lead for the combined entity, especially in transport sectors.

The US presidential election result hints at richer pickings in that country than it has experienced previously.

The SWOT analysis reveals that GIP has experience aplenty, and stands to do well out of the arrangement with BlackRock, but any such transaction that creates such a behemoth can equally awake the skeletons that await in the cupboard.