Border to Coast launches private market offerings

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has launched its first offerings for private equity and infrastructure with more than £1 billion of commitments from partner funds. These are the first offerings in Border to Coast’s private markets programme, which is expected to grow to £10 billion over the long term.

Border to Coast launched its private equity offering in May with £500 million of commitments from eight partner funds. These commitments will be invested over the next year via high quality managers as part of a programme to provide a diversified global private equity portfolio over the long term across buyout, special situations, growth and venture strategies.

The Partnership also launched its first infrastructure offering, which went live in July with £675 million of commitments from 10 partner funds. These commitments will be invested over the next nine months as part of a programme to provide a diversified global infrastructure portfolio over the long term across core, core+ and value add/opportunistic strategies.

Partner funds are currently anticipated to make similar commitments to private equity and infrastructure on an annual basis over the medium term, with an objective to deploy the capital in the 12 months following each annual commitment, subject to asset allocation decisions by the partner funds and the availability of suitable investments.

Daniel Booth, Border to Coast CIO, commented: “The launch of our private markets structure is an important element of the value that Border to Coast is seeking to bring to Partner Funds.” He explained that the key aims of the private markets structure are to enhance risk-adjusted, net of fees returns for the Partnership’s investors through economies of scale, increased resources for due diligence, and access to a wider range of investments. “We have developed a robust investment process incorporating principles of responsible investment, through which we hope to develop longer-term relationships with key industry participants to enable partner funds to collectively benefit,” he added.