LGPS schemes commit to infrastructure fundraising

GLIL Infrastructure (GLIL) has raised a further £500 million from its LGPS members as it bids to drive further investment in core UK infrastructure assets.

Members making the commitment included Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire Pension Funds as part of the Northern LGPS pool, and Lancashire County Pension Fund, Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund and London Pensions Fund Authority, under Local Pensions Partnership.

It takes the investment fund’s total capital to £2.3 billion of which it has deployed £1.4 billion into the infrastructure sector across 10 assets.

“The Chancellor has expressed how critical infrastructure investment is to the immediate economic recovery and our future,” said Ted Frith, chief operating officer at GLIL Infrastructure. “Central to that message was the government’s support for the role that private capital can play in funding projects. Our latest fundraising demonstrates the incredible opportunity there is for pension funds to answer that call and to help transform our nation’s infrastructure.”

As the economic and social benefits of infrastructure investment are better understood, GLIL expects to see more pension funds drive capital into the sector, he added, not least because in the current climate, funds are looking to match their long-term liabilities with sustainable and cost-effective assets that can provide reliable returns for pension members for many years to come.

The open-ended fund was established in 2015 to drive direct investment in core UK infrastructure and support the long-term objectives of pension funds and local authority pooling.

Investments include equity stakes in Anglian Water, Clyde Windfarm, Forth Ports, two fleets of trains with Rock Rail, a portfolio of PPP assets and investments in biomass and anaerobic digestion energy generation.

In November 2020, it acquired a 30% equity stake in Agility Trains East, a rolling stock fleet of 65 new intercity trains on the East Coast Mainline.