Wüest Partner has appointed Christian Topp as the new Head of Infrastructure Advisory. This appointment aims to strengthen the company's advisory and valuation competence for institutional investors and investment managers in the real assets segment. Christian Topp brings over 25 years of experience in infrastructure and energy investments. His previous position was Head of Infrastructure Equity Solutions at Swiss Life Asset Managers.
Infrastructure is increasingly establishing itself as one of the most dynamic asset classes in institutional private market portfolios. The characteristic of long-term stable, inflation-hedged cash flows, combined with an attractive risk-return profile, makes infrastructure investments an integral part of a diversified real assets allocation. This applies particularly to insurance companies, pension funds, and occupational pension schemes. Wüest Partner is responding to this development by specifically expanding its valuation offering to include independent advisory services that cover the entire investment lifecycle.
Expertise and Career
Christian Topp brings a strong institutional investment perspective to his new role. Most recently, at Swiss Life Asset Managers, he led the Infrastructure Equity Solutions division for institutional clients. Prior to that, he played a significant role in expanding the infrastructure equity business at Allianz Capital Partners. His academic background includes a diploma in Energy and Process Engineering, a Master's degree from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA from London Business School. This combination of technical specialisation and capital market knowledge is considered essential for the valuation and advising of complex infrastructure investments.
Integrated Services in Real Assets
In his new role, Christian Topp will work closely with Thomas Lehmann, Director at Wüest Partner. Thomas Lehmann is responsible, among other things, for infrastructure valuation. The aim of this collaboration is to further develop the interface between strategic investment consulting, transaction support, and independent valuation. Thomas Lehmann stated that Christian Topp's comprehensive market expertise will enable Wüest Partner to provide even more market-oriented valuation services for energy and infrastructure assets, which will serve as a reliable basis for investment, financing, and transaction decisions. The intended approach is an integrated service offering that provides market and strategy analyses, investment and transaction consulting, and independent valuations from a single source. This serves to meet the specific governance and reporting requirements of institutional investors.
Stefan Stute, Partner Advisory Germany at Wüest Partner, explained that infrastructure has evolved from a niche allocation into a strategic core component of institutional private market portfolios. With Christian Topp, Wüest Partner gains an expert who masters this asset class from the perspective of institutional investors – both on the investment side and in structuring and valuing complex transactions. This strengthens the ability to support investors independently and collaboratively.
