Bernhard Capital, yeni altyapı hizmetleri fonu için 1,5 milyar $ hedefliyor

Bernhard Capital targets $1.5 billion for new infrastructure services fund

Madeline Shi

Wed, August 5, 2026 at 12:52 AM GMT+3 3 min read

Bernhard Capital Partners is returning to the fundraising trail for its fourth fund to invest in infrastructure services companies, as it looks to capitalize on surging power demand in the US.

The Baton Rouge, LA-based firm is targeting $1.5 billion for BCP Fund IV, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The roughly $6 billion manager plans to begin formally marketing to investors in September and will look to hold a first close before the end of the year, they added.

The new fund will seek to capitalize on the expansion of power and grid capacity to meet electricity demand, as well as the buildout of water and wastewater infrastructure required to operate data centers.

A predecessor fund collected $1.42 billion, just shy of its initial $1.5 billion target, before closing in January 2025. It garnered support from institutional investors such as the Louisiana State Employees' Retirement System, which committed $100 million, and the District of Columbia Retirement Board, which committed $75 million, according to PitchBook data.

Bernhard declined to comment.

Jim Bernhard and Jeff Jenkins launched Bernhard Capital in 2013 and raised one of the largest ever first-time infrastructure services funds, at $750 million.

Jim Bernhard was the founder and CEO of steel pipe producer The Shaw Group, which was sold to Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. in 2013 for more than $3 billion in stock and cash, representing a 72% premium over the business's share price.

The firm has returned roughly $2 billion to its LPs across its infrastructure services funds since the start of 2025, the people said. Exits in 2026 include the sale of United WELD Holdings, a pipe fabrication and distribution business, to buyout shop One Equity Partners.

Bernhard has also carved out a strategy of buying regulated utility assets. The strategy is part of efforts to capitalize on surging power demand in the US to meet the rise of AI and data centers, as well as a government-led push to reshore industry and gain energy independence.

Its latest act played out last week, when Bernhard cleared its final regulatory hurdle for the $1.25 billion acquisition of New Mexico Gas Company from Canadian energy company Emera. The deal faced strong opposition from environmental groups and some elected officials, including New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, who argued that Bernhard's complex "layered corporate structure" and use of leverage could lead to rate hikes for customers, according to Albuquerque public radio station KANW.

In April, the firm joined forces with Stonepeak to acquire Cleco, a utility serving central Louisiana, which has emerged as a hub for AI data center development. The deal's $5 billion valuation made it the sixth-largest PE-backed acquisition of a power generation business, with the majority of such acquisitions occurring in the past five years.

Attracting new LP commitments has grown harder for smaller buyout firms in recent years, as institutional investors have concentrated their allocations among large, established managers.

US PE funds raised $308 billion last year, the lowest annual total since 2020, and nearly half of that already-shrunken pool went to mega-funds sized above $5 billion, according to PitchBook's Q2 2026 US PE Breakdown.

That squeeze on middle market firms appears to be loosening in the first half of this year, with mega-funds' share of all capital raised dropping to about 39%.

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This article originally appeared on PitchBook News