2point6billion published a piece earlier this month on infrastructure funds and their growing presence in Asia.

According to their post, private equity is investing in infrastructure in emerging markets all over Asia. They quote Morgan Stanley as forecasting over $21 trillion in infrastructure spending in emerging markets over the next decade. Two-thirds of that spending will be in Asia, and two-thirds of the Asian spending (about 44% of the total) will be in China.

Morgan Stanley in particular sees the possibilities in infrastructure investment as "a fantastic opportunity for us at a time when a lot of our competitors are scaling down," according to Bryan Southergill, JP Morgan's Asia real estate head. Southergill's statement was part of an interview with Reuters.

JP Morgan recently announced infrastructure investment funds of US$1 billion along with plans to focus those funds primarily on cities in India and China, with a secondary focus on South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.


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