Industriens Pension invests in motorway infrastructure in US and Europe

Industriens Pension has made three new transport infrastructure investments totalling DKK1.1bn (€148m).

The Danish pension fund has invested in motorways and motorway service stations in the US, Portugal and the UK.

The deals bring its infrastructure portfolio to DKK17bn, roughly 11% of its DKK155bn of total assets.

The three investments are in the Northwest Parkway toll road in the US, the public-private partnership (PPP) highways Norte Litoral and Via do Infante in Portugal, and in the privately-held UK motorway services operator Welcome Break.

Jan Østergaard, head of private investments at Industriens Pension, said: “Motorways and motorway service areas provide stable and long-term cash flows with high levels of inflation protection and limited market exposure.

“These are low-risk investments which will ensure that our members get an attractive and inflation-adjusted return.”

The pension fund made its first infrastructure investment in 2006 and said the portfolio had produced very stable and positive contributions to the overall return.

“At the same time, this type of investment contributes to ensure good risk spread in the overall portfolio,” it said.

The Northwest Parkway is a toll motorway built in 2003 that serves as a ring road around Denver, Colorado, and ownership is based on a concession with 90 years left to run.

The Norte Litoral and Via do Infante roads are 113km and 133km long, respectively, and constitute the main road arteries in the Porto and Algarve regions.

They act as toll roads, but earnings are protected via availability-based concession payments in the OPP contracts.

Welcome Break, meanwhile, is the second largest owner and operator of services areas along British motorways.

The pension fund said the company’s franchised business model had shown stable earnings over the past 20 years, despite two economic crises in the country during the period.

Industriens Pension made the motorway investments in cooperation with infrastructure manager DIF, and was advised by Arjun Infrastructure Partners, Evercore Partners, KPMG and White & Case in the the direct investment in motorway services.