Competing for capital
What makes a market attractive to long-term infrastructure investors? A new report published by GIIA, with lead analysis from Freshfields, compares the policy and regulatory frameworks shaping private investment across ten major jurisdictions including the European Union.
A decisive moment for infrastructure policy
Governments need private capital to renew national infrastructure, advance the energy transition and strengthen digital and economic resilience. Across major markets, they are turning to a similar set of mechanisms: regulated or contracted revenue models, greater public co-investment and reforms intended to accelerate planning and delivery.
As these approaches converge, the real points of difference are becoming clearer. Investors are looking beyond the headline generosity of individual incentives to the durability of regulatory commitments, the predictability of policy across political cycles, the ability of governments to turn reform into delivery and the availability of a visible pipeline of investable projects.
Competing for capital compares the investment landscape across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside the European Union. It examines both the frameworks designed to attract capital and the foreign investment, merger control and sector-specific regimes through which that capital must pass.
The analysis reveals substantial opportunity, but also growing complexity. As infrastructure becomes more strategically and politically significant, investors face broader scrutiny, earlier regulatory intervention and greater pressure to align transactions with public policy priorities. Success increasingly depends on understanding not only where investment is wanted, but where policy commitments will hold, projects can be delivered and regulatory risk can be managed from the outset.
Published by GIIA, the report features lead analysis from Freshfields and contributions from our StrongerTogether partner firms, Gilbert + Tobin in Australia and McCarthy Tétrault in Canada.
