£46bn council pension pool invests in infrastructure

Border to Coast Chief Investment Officer Daniel Booth

The Leeds-based £46 billion Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has announced its involvement in about £1.4 billion of infrastructure investment.

Border to Coast is one of the largest public sector pension pools in the UK and involves 11 local government pension scheme funds from Cumbria, Durham, East Riding, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Teesside, Tyne and Wear, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Bedfordshire and Surrey.

“Border to Coast has deployed £675m of infrastructure investments from its first offering (Series 1A) in line with expected timescales,” said the fund.

“The portfolio consists of eight investments with high quality managers providing exposure to Border to Coast’s targeted infrastructure themes including Energy Transition, Digital Revolution, Operational Value Add, Greenfield and Emerging Markets.

“Border to Coast has secured a further £760 million of commitments from its Partner Funds to its second infrastructure offering (Series 1B).

“These commitments are to be deployed in the period to 31 March 2021 as part of a programme to build a diversified global infrastructure portfolio over the long-term across Core, Core+ and Value Add/Opportunistic strategies.”

Border to Coast Chief Investment Officer Daniel Booth said: “Infrastructure was identified as a key asset class for our Partner Funds as they seek new investment opportunities and better diversification of risk. 

“Thanks to our collective size we have been able to access high quality investment opportunities whilst generating significant collective fee savings for our investors over the long term.

“We appreciate the trust that our Partner Funds have placed in us as shown by the substantial commitments they have made to Infrastructure.”

The eight investments in Series 1A are:

  • Brookfield Infrastructure Fund IV – $125 million
  • Global Infrastructure Partners Fund IV – $60 million
  • AMP Global Infrastructure Fund II – $100 million
  • Infracapital Greenfield Partners Fund II – £100 million
  • Arcus European Infrastructure Fund II – €90 million
  • iCON Infrastructure Partners V – $100 million
  • Macquarie GIG Renewable Fund II – €101 million
  • Stonepeak Global Renewables Fund – $100 million