Perella Weinberg eyes transportation assets

Perella Weinberg Partners, the advisory and asset management firm founded by former Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman Joe Perella, has inked a joint venture agreement to invest up to $100 million in the transportation sector.

The firm is joining up with Atlanta, Georgia-based Infinity Capital Partners to set up a new management company to acquire assets in the rail, trucking and other transportation sub-sectors, according to a press release. Specific opportunities might include railcars, vessels and commercial real estate, as well as auto loans, credit card receivables and patent royalty streams and litigation claims.

The joint venture, named Infinity Transportation, will expand infinity’s investment universe beyond rail, where it has focused on buying and leasing railcars to railroads and shippers. For Perella Weinberg Partners, the joint venture will allow the firm to “acquire high-quality, cash-generating assets at attractive valuations,” according to the release.

Perella Weinberg Partners said that “certain funds” within its Asset-Based Opportunity strategy and Infinity Asset Management, a subsidiary of Infinity, will own the joint venture.

The Asset-Based Opportunity strategy is part of a wider asset management business at Perella that encompasses managed assets of more than $5.5 billion, according to the press release. The firm was founded in 2006, a year after Perella quit Morgan Stanley over a management shake-up.

Infinity Asset Management is the hard-asset investment arm of Infinity Capital partners, which also runs a hedge fund of funds business.