Infrastructure in Shipping

Major infrastructure funds invested big dollars in shipping in recent years. But what qualifies as "infrastructure" within shipping? LNG assets, container leasing, and Jones Act assets.

LNG | Investments recently came in the form of take-private transactions, with BlackRock taking GasLog Ltd. off of the New York Stock Exchange and Stonepeak doing the same to Teekay LNG (since renamed Seapeak)–both in 2021. Over in Norway, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners helped take Höegh LNG private in the same year.

Container leasing | Similar to LNG, companies in the container leasing space recently attracted large private funds to buy out their publicly-traded shares–including repeat player Stonepeak acquiring Textainer earlier this year and Brookfield Asset Management purchasing Triton International last year.

Jones Act | Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners has been particularly active investing both in West Coast-focused liner operator The Pasha Group last year as well as setting up an offshore wind joint-venture with Crowley this year.

While the trend of major infrastructure funds investing in shipping seems to be gathering momentum, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley are both reportedly exploring selling their stakes in GasLog and Höegh LNG, respectively, just three years after buying their stakes (2021).