Frederic Michel-Verdier

Frederic Michel-Verdier Biography

Frederic Michel-Verdier Biography 

Infrastructure veteran Frederic Michel-Verdier has left IFM Investors after more than a decade at the global fund manager. IFM wrote in an emailed statement to Inframation that Michel-Verdier left at the end last week to “pursue personal business interests”. Frederic Michel-Verdier was IFM’s lead partner on its acquisition in May of a 30% stake in the Deep Container Terminal Gdansk in Poland from Macquarie, alongside PSA International and the Polish Development Fund. In 2018, he advised on IFM’s acquisition of a 40% stake in Mersin International Port, later joining the Turkish company’s board. He also served as a board observer at FCC Aqualia, the Spanish water management company in which he led the acquisition of a 49% from FCC last year. He was vice chairman since 2010 of the supervisory board of Polish heating networks operator Veolia Energia Polska, in which he led the acquisition of a 40% stake.

“Since 2008, Mr Michel-Verdier has been instrumental in developing the London office through strategic relationships and partnerships for the long-term benefit of our investors and their members and has played a key role in a number of our most successful infrastructure investments including the acquisitions of Veolia Poland, FCC Aqualia, Mersin International Port and Deep Container Terminal Gdansk,” the company said. “We wish him all the very best for the future. We are in the process of replacing Mr Michel-Verdier with an equivalent investment executive.”

Frederic joined IFM Investors after an 11-year career as an M&A banker at ING Barings in London and SG Corporate & Investment Banking in Paris, where he covered the utilities, transports and telecom sectors. He was responsible for a wide range of cross-borders transactions, public and private. He initially advised governments on privatisation in Central & Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria…) but also in North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt) focusing on telecom and utilities.

Prior to his banking career, Frederic also spent three years with EY in Paris, where he was involved in audit and transaction services across a variety of sectors.

His role at IFM meant he was responsible for relationship and partnership development as well as sourcing, evaluating, implementing and managing investments. At IFM, Michel-Verdier was coordinating the deal sourcing effort in Europe and was responsible for relationship and partnership development as well as the evaluation, implementation, and management of investments. He held various directorship positions  on the boards of Spanish FCC Aqualia, Turkish Mersin International Port, and was Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Veolia Energia Polska and Veolia Energia Lodz. An IFM spokesperson said the manager is “in the process of replacing Michel-Verdier with an equivalent investment executive”.

When asked about the future of infrastructure investment, Mr. Michel-Verdier commented “Infrastructure has a low correlation with other asset classes and offers protection against inflation and economic cyclicality. Yields are also steady and have good long-term visibility. However, in this low rate and high liquidity environment, expertise in asset management has become crucial to de-risk the investments and add value through asset transitions, strategic initiatives, operational insights and capital management.” He further added “European governments are introducing stricter screening rules on foreign direct investments, and partnering with the right local investors is a way to enhance acceptability for any acquisition of strategic infrastructure assets.”

Find out more about Frederic Michel-Verdier by visiting his about me page here.