Stonepeak Credit's Ryan Roberge - building an infrastructure credit strategy

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s conversation unpacks an emerging category within infrastructure investing that has a compelling set of market forces and mega trend tailwinds.

We sat down in Stonepeak’s New York office with Stonepeak Credit Partner and Senior Managing Director Ryan Roberge.

Ryan brings a diverse set of experiences to bear that helped him build an infrastructure credit business at Stonepeak. He previously covered the energy and infrastructure sectors for King Street, a New York-based hedge fund focused on distressed, special situations, and event driven credit investing. Prior to King Street, Ryan worked in the Energy group at TPG Capital, a large global alternative asset manager. Ryan started his career in Credit Suisse’s Energy Investment Banking Group. He received a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Louisiana State University.

Ryan and I had a fascinating conversation on why infrastructure credit’s time is now. We covered:

How Ryan’s background across energy investment banking, energy private equity, and distressed and special situations energy and infrastructure investing all help when investing in infrastructure credit.Why infrastructure credit is a specialized, capital-intensive strategy.How to underwrite data center risk.Contrarian AI insights.The biggest risks in infrastructure credit investing.How and why infrastructure credit is different from other areas of private credit and direct lending.How a specialist investment platform can help inform where to invest in infrastructure credit.

Thanks Ryan for coming on the podcast to share your expertise, wisdom, and passion for infrastructure and credit.

Show Notes
00:00 Hard Asset Diversification

00:25 Welcome to Alt Goes Mainstream

01:01 Message from our Sponsor, Ultimus

02:07 Meet Ryan Roberge

04:16 Ryan Career Origins

04:52 From Banking to TPG

05:25 King Street Credit Training

06:07 Equity To Credit Shift

07:04 Downside First Mindset

07:48 What Is Infrastructure Credit

08:08 Three Core Sectors

08:25 Asset Level Underwriting

09:02 Capital Intensive Returns

09:51 Thinking Like An Owner

10:44 Funding Gap And AI Tailwinds

11:01 Why Direct Lending Misses It

12:29 Construction And Collateral Value

13:15 Capital Markets Spectrum

15:56 Private Credit Vs Infra Credit

18:55 Where It Fits In Portfolios

24:36 Data Centers Tech Risk

31:04 Cycle Risk Reality Check

31:32 Long Duration Mindset

32:13 Loan Horizon Framework

32:40 Asset First Underwriting

32:53 Maintenance Capex Truth

33:59 Stress Testing Recovery

34:13 Capital Flood Into Infra

35:14 Theme Chasing Warning

36:02 Why Skip Renewables

36:20 Bigger Deals Cheaper Money

36:51 ABF And Insurance Capital

37:17 Non-IG Hard Asset Logic

38:11 Scale Keeps IG Away

38:25 Key Underwriting Risks

38:34 Loan To Value Reality

39:01 Fiber To Home Case Study

40:09 Growth Platform Underwrite

41:01 Hiring For Credit Mindset

42:23 Downside Recovery Culture

43:10 Contrarian AI Insight

44:07 Circular Demand Red Flags

46:39 Data Center Risk Filters

49:20 Investor Demand And Closing

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

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We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.