GLIL Infrastructure, the joint venture between London and Manchester public pension funds, has more than doubled in size to £1.275bn (€1.52bn) after three more funds joined the pool.
West Yorkshire Pension Fund, Merseyside Pension Fund and Lancashire County Pension Fund have joined founding investors the London Pension Fund Authority and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, expanding GLIL’s assets from the original £500m.
The planned link-up was first reported in February, but today marks the first official confirmation.
The funds have previously stated their intention to raise infrastructure allocations to 10% of each pension fund’s portfolio.
The collaboration brings together the Local Pensions Partnership (LPP) and Northern Powerhouse local government pension scheme pools, which are working on plans to pool assets more broadly.
The two pools were in talks to combine their efforts across all asset classes, but this plan was abandoned during the summer.
In a statement, the LPP said: “The expansion allows GLIL Infrastructure access to a greater pool of financial commitments and investment expertise from its five contributing funds, cementing it as a significant and serious investor in the UK infrastructure market.”
The Berkshire Pension Fund is also in talks to join GLIL and plans to become the third stakeholder in the LPP.
The £35bn Border to Coast pool of 12 pension funds is also said to be in talks to join the infrastructure joint venture.
Increasing public pension funds’ investments in infrastructure is a cornerstone of the UK government’s asset-pooling project.
Each of the eight LGPS pools has been specifically told to factor in infrastructure investment to their plans.
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