The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price has finished the trading day in the red on Wednesday. This follows news of the company's asset management division raising $6.9 billion for its freshest fund.
At market close, shares in the global financial group are down 0.70%, trading at $156.68.
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Riding infrastructure tailwinds
While shareholders might be left with less money at the end of trade today, Macquarie is finishing up with more. According to Reuters, the company has raised nearly $7 billion for a fund that will be dedicated to United States infrastructure.
The Macquarie Infrastructure Partners (MIP) V fund plans on investing in companies with exposure to waste management, utilities, energy, transportation, and communication sectors.
Why specifically United States infrastructure you may ask? It appears the fund is aligned with the US government's plans to spend $1.2 trillion over the next five years.
Generally speaking, the spending would be soaked up by developments in the country's roads, ports, bridges, and other public projects. In the meantime, US lawmakers continue to negotiate the specifics of the spending package.
With such a large sum of money being poured into the country, some of the financings are set to come from private investors such as Macquarie. Hence, Macquarie is seeking out this opportunity which might help push its share price higher longer term.
Macquarie had no issues raising the capital for its latest fund. This might be due in part to its track record of infrastructure funds. For reference, the Macquarie Infrastructure Partners IV fund had notched up a return of 9.4% as of September last year.
Macquarie Infrastructure Partners Chief Executive, Karl Kuchel said:
MIP V is meant to be a continuation of the strategy of the previous MIP vintages. The MIP funds now span 18 years and multiple economic cycles – we really think this is our sweet spot, focusing on similar risk-profile assets and sectors
Macquarie share price reflection
The Macquarie share price has delivered solid returns for investors over the years. In the last year alone, the company's 25.9% return outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
However, the financial group doesn't even make the top 10 of best-performing shares in the financial sector in 2021. On the other hand, Macquarie has left shareholders grinning from ear to ear on longer time frames. For instance, the Macquarie share price has returned 111% over 5 years, and 167% including dividends.
