Jarden's Nevill Gluyas upped his target from $8.85 to $9.70.
And Craigs Wade Gardiner and Micah Barr lifted their 12-month price target from $8.26 to $9.40, and their sum-of-parts valuation from $8.77 to $9.67.
The pair dubbed the Longroad deal "Tilt II" in a reference to Infratil's $965m windfall from the sale of its majority stake in Tilt - the deal that underpinned Infratil's record $1.2b profit for the 12 months to March.
After Munich Re agreed to invest US$300m in Longroad to acquire a 12 per cent stake, Infratil (which like the NZ Super Fund invested another US$100 million to avoid dilution and keep its stake at 37 per cent), said the value of its Longroad stake was US$798m as of June 30.
That was significantly higher than a valuation dated March 31, which concluded its stake was worth only US$220m, which itself was a jump on the book value of US$95m.
Jarden's Gluyas says Infratil could now net just shy of $1 billion from a hypothetical sale of its Longroad stake.
Craigs' head of private wealth research Mark Lister told the Herald, "All in all, this is a great outcome for Infratil shareholders. Infrastructure is one sector that historically performs well during periods of higher inflation, so the company looks to be well-positioned at the moment."
Even allowing that Infratil has in recent years traded at a 10 per cent discount to the sum of its parts, or net asset value, "the shares are looking reasonable value", Lister said.
What's behind the massive rise?
When the Herald's Jenée Tibshraeny asked Infratil chief executive Jason Boyes what was behind the massive rise in valuation of Infratil's stake in Longroad, he explained that in March, the independent valuer only considered the value looking one year ahead. Whereas in June, it considered the value across multiple years into the future.
"The value was always there, but now it's recognised," Boyes said.
He said a valuation hadn't been done in June using the same methodology as in March. Therefore, apples couldn't be compared with apples.
Coming back to the statement, it explained Longroad has developed and acquired 3.2 gigawatts of wind and solar projects since its establishment in 2016.
It still retained 1.5 GW of this sum and had a 15 GW development pipeline composed of wind, solar and storage assets across 13 states in the US.
NZ Super Fund head of external investments and partnerships Del Hart said it was exciting to see Longroad grow since the Fund first invested in it.
"Longroad has been one of the NZ Super Fund's most successful investments," she said.
Longroad chief executive Paul Gaynor said: "The additional capital will allow Longroad to maximise its competitive position in what remains one of the most attractive markets in the world for renewable energy investment."
Longroad management had a 14 per cent stake in the company.
Munich Ergo Asset Management's investment was subject to approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commission on Foreign Investment in the US.
This transaction is expected to be completed in the last quarter of the calendar year.
