QIC, has expanded its infrastructure firepower with a landmark partnership with CalPERS, whereby the giant US pension fund is committing about A$1 billion to deals in Asia Pacific that will be sourced and managed by the Australian fund manager.
It will be the first time that the US$300 billion fund – the largest pension fund in the US – has ventured into infrastructure in this region. QIC will co-invest “a small amount” in the deals. It is expected that at least half of the investments will be domiciled in Australia and New Zealand.
Ross Israel, head of QIC’s global infrastructure strategy said: “We are very pleased to have entered into this partnership with a pension fund of CalPERS’ stature and for an investment mandate of this scale. CalPERS has been at the forefront of investment on many dimensions. This commitment to QIC and the Asia-Pacific infrastructure region is a validation of our infrastructure capabilities and the opportunity set to deploy capital across the core infrastructure sectors of transport, energy/utilities and PPPs.
“This milestone is the culmination of a dialogue over a number of years between QIC and CalPERS to explore a partnership approach to investing in infrastructure.”
QIC, which has total funds under management of A$73 billion, currently managed about A$5.8 billion in infrastructure across 10 investments. It has realised about A$6.6 billion for its clients.
* Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)