Operational assets become more popular with investors

So-called “operational assets” tend to be regarded as one of the new wave of alternative investments that are attracting an increasing amount of attention from investors.

“There’s a lot of capital that’s being attracted to the revenue and income stream that comes from some of those operating assets and the operational aspects of those assets,” said Stephen Miles, head of strategic capital partnerships at Schroders Capital.

“I think that the ability to more closely manage your revenue as an operator owner is also attractive.”

Miles said that the benefit of investment in operational assets is that the investor is much more closely aligned with what actually happens in a building.

“There’s a lot of capital today that is looking at how much exposure it has to the non-traditional sectors and I think that is also a big driver to come into some of these more operational assets,” Miles said.

“Some people call them ‘alternatives’ but I think that they are maturing at quite some pace and I think that is also bringing much more confidence from the capital markets to go into and invest in those assets.”