Infrastructure Investor: Nikolaus Woloszczuk on Investing in Volatile Markets

Perspectives

Speaking from the sidelines of the 2026 Infrastructure Investor Global Summit in Berlin, Stonepeak Senior Managing Director Nikolaus Woloszczuk shared his perspectives on infrastructure investing in volatile markets, what qualities investors are looking for in managers amid today’s uncertainty, and why deep sector expertise, disciplined risk management, and active asset management continue to be important differentiators.

Read some of the highlights from his interview here:

  • “Infrastructure is fundamentally a defensive asset class. We provide essential services where there are limited alternatives – think about stable end markets, stable market shares, contracted revenues. That pricing power protects against inflation, so you get predictable, recurring cash flow streams, and that fundamentally underpins stable, risk-adjusted returns with really good downside protection.”
  • “In periods of uncertainty and volatility, whether that’s oil shocks, inflation bouts, or concerns about AI, infrastructure is a safe haven…I think the macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility [over the years] have really proven the resilience of the asset class. We’ve lived through COVID, we’ve lived through the inflation shock, and the stability of infrastructure assets has really come to light. Having that track record has proven what infrastructure should be and how it should behave.”
  • “Right now, the most interesting strategies are those that can take advantage of the current turbulence and volatility. No matter how stable the underlying assets, in turbulent times, a number of investors pull back. For those who remain active, you can drive better deal terms, and you can find particularly attractive returns. These dislocations often provide excellent entry points into some of these attractive megatrends, and that’s really where Stonepeak excels.”
  • “Investors want a manager that focuses on downside protection and capital preservation, to really deliver that predictability and stability that they expect from infrastructure, and a manager that’s battled-hardened through economic cycles…Value creation and active asset management, whether through optimizing existing operations or building new infrastructure assets, is also a really important characteristic, and that’s something that benefits the scaled managers that have been able to build sizable operations.”

Watch the full interview: