Renewable energy and telecoms have proved to be amongst the most pandemic resilient, according to a new study into the resilience of infrastructure to global pandemics published by infrastructure and private equity investment management company Foresight.

The analysis, which examines 23 infrastructure sub-sectors spanning economic and social infrastructure, shows that while infrastructure as an asset-class has proved to be highly pandemic resilient, with many sub-sectors largely immune to the impact, there are substantial differences in the performance of various infrastructure sub-sectors.

Foresight’s white paper Infrastructure Pandemic Resilience: a true test of infrastructure’s defensive characteristics considers the resilience of infrastructure to global pandemics through five investment fundamentals: revenues; costs; financials; political and regulatory environments; and operations.  

Nigel Aitchison, partner and head of infrastructure at Foresight, said: “Infrastructure as an asset class has long been sold on its robust defensive and uncorrelated characteristics. The Covid-19 global pandemic has been the biggest test of its resilience yet. Foresight’s research drills down into the infrastructure sector and reveals substantial differences in the performance of 23 sub-sectors. Diversification across a range of these sub-sectors will be key to limiting the adverse impact of future pandemic threats.”