Simon Gray

Simon Gray is a co-founder and Co-Managing Partner of Arcus Infrastructure Partners, a London-based independent fund manager focused exclusively on long-term investments in European infrastructure. He was a member of the team that founded Arcus in 2009 and has since played a central role in building the firm; he was elected Co-Managing Partner in July 2013 (alongside Ian Harding). He sits on the firm's Investment Committee, Management Committee and Fund Supervisory Board, positions he has held since the business was formed.

Before Arcus, Simon spent more than a decade in infrastructure investing at Babcock & Brown, where he served as Head of Economic Infrastructure (roughly 1996–2009). During that period he led the team that completed the acquisition of Angel Trains in 2008 and oversaw the take-private of Forth Ports in 2011, subsequently holding board seats at both companies. Earlier in his career he worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, 1992–1996) and at Prudential-Bache Capital Funding (1989–1991), giving him direct experience across Western Europe as well as Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia.

He is an engineer by training, holding an MA in Engineering from Trinity College, Cambridge (1986–1989). Over a 30+ year career he has specialised in the origination, procurement, structuring, execution, financing and management of infrastructure assets. Under his and Ian Harding's leadership, Arcus has grown into a manager overseeing investments with an aggregate enterprise value of approximately €22 billion (as of 31 December 2023), and closed its third flagship fund, Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 3, at €1.61 billion in March 2024, ahead of its €1.5 billion target.

• Asset class: Long-term, control-oriented investments in European mid-market infrastructure — a value-add strategy rather than early-stage venture. (This is the correct framing; he is not a seed/angel investor.)
• Sectors: Historically anchored in telecoms/digital infrastructure, transport, and energy, with the current portfolio spanning digital infrastructure, renewable/solar tenant electricity, cold-storage logistics, sustainable intermodal leasing, and aircraft leasing.
• Deal type: Majority stakes in essential-service, cash-generative operating businesses and platforms, with active asset management and operational value creation (Arcus builds "buy-and-build" platforms, e.g. Constellation in cold storage and EINHUNDERT/Officium in solar tenant electricity).
• Geography: Pan-European mid-market, leveraging Simon's broad experience across Western and Eastern Europe.
• What makes them say yes: Durable, infrastructure-like cash flows; downside protection; a platform that can be scaled through add-on acquisitions and operational improvement over a long hold.