Larger energy and commodities specialist funds are setting up so-called “special opportunities funds” to snap up infrastructure or positions in physical commodities markets.
“Wherever you look, the trend is to move into the physical side of the business,” saidGary Vasey at energy and utility consultancy UtiliPoint.
Large Wall Street banks, private equity firms and now hedge funds are jostling to acquire physical assets, he said.
Ospraie Management, a U.S-based hedge fund, earlier this year bought into a barge company in the United States, hoping to ride an expected boom in the need to transport commodities across the U.S. on barges.
U.S. hedge fund groups Adit Capital and Solius Energy Fund are among hedge funds that are reported to control more than 25 percent of the world’s physical uranium stockpiles, hoping to profit from revived interest in nuclear power.
From refineries to liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, barges to ships and oil tankers and dry ports, nothing seems to be off limits for these financial players.
