Frédéric Blanc-Brude, PhD

Biography

Frédéric Blanc-Brude is the founding Chief Executive Officer of Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA), an ESMA-registered index and data provider specialised in private market benchmarks for infrastructure and private equity investors. SIPA's indices and benchmarks are used by clients representing more than US$700bn of infrastructure assets under management and US$1tn of private equity AUM.

He joined EDHEC Business School in 2012 after a decade working in private-sector infrastructure finance, where he was directly involved in more than US$6bn of transactions. At EDHEC he served as Research Director of the EDHEC-Risk Institute (2012–2015) and, from 2015, as founding Director of the EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA) until 2025, before stepping back from that role to focus on SIPA as an affiliated researcher.

He holds a PhD in Finance from King's College London, and degrees from the London School of Economics, the Sorbonne, and Sciences Po Paris.

Research

His research centres on the valuation of highly illiquid assets and the stochastic modelling of infrastructure project cash flows, with a focus on long-term contracts and investment, discounting, asset pricing and allocation, portfolio construction, project finance, and pensions economics.

1,296 citations 14 h-index 22 i10-index — Google Scholar

Education

• PhD, Finance — King's College London
• London School of Economics
• Sciences Po, Paris
• Sorbonne, Paris

Publications

A selection of peer-reviewed articles, working papers and reports. For the complete list and current citation counts, see Google Scholar.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

1. An Infrastructure Investment Primer: From Valuation to Allocation and Manager Selection (with N. Amenc, A. Gupta, T. Whittaker). Journal of Portfolio Management, 48(9), 2022. (9 citations)
2. Calibrating Credit Risk Dynamics in Private Infrastructure Debt (with M. Hasan, T. Whittaker). The Journal of Fixed Income, 27(4), 2018. (12 citations)
3. You Can Work It Out! Valuation and Recovery of Private Debt with a Renegotiable Default Threshold (with M. Hasan). The Journal of Fixed Income, 26(4), 2017. (6 citations)
4. Searching for a Listed Infrastructure Asset Class Using Mean–Variance Spanning (with T. Whittaker, S. Wilde). Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, 31(2), 2017. (29 citations)
5. A Structural Model of Credit Risk for Illiquid Debt (with M. Hasan). The Journal of Fixed Income, 26(1), 2016. (17 citations)
6. Benchmarking Infrastructure Project Finance: Objectives, Roadmap, and Recent Progress (with M. Hasan, T. Whittaker). The Journal of Alternative Investments, 19(2), 2016. (6 citations)
7. The FDI Location Decision: Distance and the Effects of Spatial Dependence (with G. Cookson, J. Piesse, R. Strange). International Business Review, 23(4), 2014. (224 citations)
8. Risk Transfer, Self-Selection and Ex Post Efficiency in Public Procurement. Revue d'économie industrielle, 2013. (10 citations)
9. A Comparison of Construction Contract Prices for Traditionally Procured Roads and Public–Private Partnerships (with H. Goldsmith, T. Välilä). Review of Industrial Organization, 35(1), 2009. (152 citations)
10. How Banks Price Loans to Public‑Private Partnerships: Evidence from the European Markets (with R. Strange). Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 19(4), 2007. (139 citations)
11. Risk Pricing and the Cost of Debt in Public‑Private Partnerships (with T. Välilä). Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 2007.

Selected working papers, reports & books

1. Low Tide: Benchmarking Risks in Infrastructure Investments — What the Data Showed About Thames Water (with T. Whittaker, A. Gupta). SSRN, 2024. SSRN
2. Highway to Hell: Climate Risks Will Cost Hundreds of Billions to Investors in Infrastructure Before 2050 (with N. Amenc, A. Gupta, B. Jayles, D. Marcelo, J. Orminski). SSRN, 2023. SSRN
3. It's Getting Physical (with D. Marcelo, N. Amenc, A. Gupta, B. Jayles, N. Manocha). SSRN, 2023. SSRN
4. Is Infrastructure Shockproof? The Resilience of Infrastructure Equity Investments During Market Downturns, 2000–2022. SSRN, 2022. SSRN
5. Unlisted Infrastructure Debt Valuation & Performance Measurement (with M. Hasan, O. Ismail). SSRN, 2014. SSRN (19 citations)
6. Infrastructure Valuation (with M. Hasan). Book. PEI Media, London, 2015.
7. Who Is Afraid of Construction Risk? Portfolio Construction with Infrastructure Debt (with O. Ismail). EDHEC Risk Institute, 2013. (11 citations)
8. Public‑Private Partnerships in Europe: An Update (with H. Goldsmith, T. Välilä). Economic and Financial Report, European Investment Bank, 2007. SSRN (100 citations)
9. Ex Ante Construction Costs in the European Road Sector: A Comparison of Public‑Private Partnerships and Traditional Public Procurement (with H. Goldsmith, T. Välilä). Economic and Financial Report, European Investment Bank, 2006. (243 citations)
10. The Handshake: Why Do Governments and Firms Sign Private Sector Participation Deals? Evidence from the Water and Sanitation Sector in Developing Countries (with O. Jensen). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 2006. (33 citations)

Affiliations & service

• Founding CEO, Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA), part of PEI Group — since 2019
• Founding Director, EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA) — 2016–2025
• Research Director, EDHEC-Risk Institute — 2012–2015
• Editorial board, The Journal of Alternative Investments
• Editorial board, Journal of Private Market Investment
• Advisory Board, Global Infrastructure Facility, World Bank
• Contribution to the regulatory and policy setting process (EIOPA, G20, etc.)

Recent mentions in the press