Episode summary
IF Great Plains 2026: Ash Williams of J.P. Morgan Asset Management Spoke to Christine Giordano
Summary
Ashbel Williams argues that infrastructure is one of the strongest alternatives for institutional portfolios because it addresses the main risks most asset owners face: global equity exposure, liquidity needs, the search for alpha, and inflation. He says the appeal is especially clear when infrastructure is tied to operating income rather than to selling assets at higher prices later.
Williams makes a distinction between capital-heavy assets whose replacement value rises with materials, labor, and tariffs, and strategies that rely on stable cash flows from regulated utilities or contracted power. In his view, the first category can benefit from inflation and rising input costs, while the second can provide durable, non-correlated revenue and profits with more predictable yield.
He also warns that infrastructure strategies built around a gain-on-sale model can disappoint if exit markets are unfavorable when the manager needs to sell. By contrast, he says focusing on efficient operations and locked-in revenue streams can produce cash yield, diversification, and total return that may exceed an asset owner’s return assumptions. The host closes by asking about another honoree, and Williams describes her as a person of conviction, purpose, and broad public service.
Key takeaways
- Ashbel Williams says infrastructure is a strong alternative for institutions because it can diversify global equity risk while adding liquidity, alpha, and inflation protection.
- Williams prefers infrastructure strategies driven by stable operating income rather than those dependent on selling assets at a premium years later.
- He says rising materials, labor shortages, and tariffs can lift the replacement value of capital-intensive infrastructure assets.
- Williams argues that regulated utility and contracted power models can insulate revenue from input-cost inflation and support durable cash flows.
- He says the best infrastructure setups can deliver cash yield, diversification, alpha, and total return well above an asset owner’s return assumption.
Notable quotes
“For most asset owners, their primary risk exposure is global equity risk”
“infrastructure is a very strong front runner for for a role in in a portfolio”
“focusing on strategies that concentrate on operating income”
“You've locked in your revenue stream”
“You've insulated yourself from from input cost increases”
How the episode opens
I'm Christine Jordan. I'm here at the Great Plains Institutional Forum in Minneapolis with Ash Williams, vice chair of JP Morgan Asset Management and also former CIO and executive director of the Florida SBA. Ash, we just went through a day of panels.
When you're thinking of alternatives, what do you think is the best option in this current environment? Perhaps the most obvious opportunity to look at early on in one's consideration of alternatives if is defined by what you're trying to accomplish. For most asset owners, their primary risk exposure is global equity risk.
So you want to diversify against that global equity risk. You want to also have a source of liquidity, a source of alpha and uh to the extent you can an inflation hedge. So on that basis I would infrastructure is a very strong front runner for for a role in in a portfolio and for the following reasons.
First of all, infrastructure is a capital asset heavy strategy. If you think about materials costs going up, labor shortages, the impacts of tariff tariffs, all of those things drive up replacement costs which create a pull forward in the value of the underlying infrastructure assets. Secondly, if you look at the types of infrastructure strategies, if you look at those that focus not on earning a material component of their total return by relying on selling an asset at an appreciated value, but instead focusing on strategies that concentrate on operating income, the consistency of that income and the ability to insulate that operating income from inflation uh pressures from input costs.
Then you can have a very powerful source of cash yield of diversification against global equity risk of alpha relative to the underlying benchmark and ultimately total return. And the summation of those things is likely to be well north of whatever the investment return assumption is for the asset owner.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- infrastructure investing
- institutional portfolios
- cash yield
- inflation protection
- diversification
Companies and tickers mentioned
- JPM
- J.P. Morgan Asset Management
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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