Legal & General is making its debut in US infrastructure, financing a 1.2m sqft university extension.

The UK institutional investor is providing around $100m (€89m) on a 38-year term to the University of California.

The deal follows significant investment in infrastructure in the UK, where it has invested £8bn of a targeted £15bn.

The transaction is the first ever educational sector public–private partnership in the US.

The facility is being provided by Legal & General Retirement (LGR), with a further $560m coming from other lenders.

Kerrigan Procter, managing director of LGR, said it continues to be drawn towards social infrastructure.

“It doesn’t get more attractive than this when the underlying asset is being developed for one of the world’s leading universities,” Procter said.

The university will use the finance to double its size, adding teaching, research and accommodation facilities.

The project includes 13 buildings to be delivered by the Plenary Group and Webcor between 2018 and 2020.

L&G said the development will have a total one-time impact related to its design and construction, including direct and ripple effects, estimated at around $1.9bn in the region and $2.4bn state-wide.

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