Few providers of alternative assets have not at least cast an eye over emerging markets. After all, the self-styled purveyors of “alpha” believe there are bucketfuls of the stuff in immature economies where mispriced assets are available in abundance. Until, that is, the cycle turns. Suddenly the leverage that alternative asset providers routinely employ turns round and bites them, leaving them nursing losses that are even more substantial than those sustained in developed markets, and discouraging further emerging market forays.

Nevertheless, among the ruins of another bursting emerging market bubble, some investment artefacts do remain intact. Infrastructure, for one, an asset class once lumped in with private equity, has now decisively broken away from the broader asset class and even appears to be gathering momentum at the moment as successive emerging market countries announce stimulus plans for their economies. And these plans are supplementary to the already huge infrastructure spending required in countries that desire to compete on equal terms with the developed world.