New Mexico Educational moves into global infrastructure, agriculture

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board has approved new investments totaling $80m (€60.2m) into a mixture of global infrastructure and agricultural assets.

The commitments were $50m into the ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund and $30m into a Southern Pastures fund.

I Squared Capital, a company formed in 2012 by the founder and former CIO of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, is seeking to raise $2bn for the Global Infrastructure Fund.

Mark Canavan, head of real assets for New Mexico, said: “This manager has an experienced infrastructure team investing in the asset class.”

It is expected that around two-thirds of fund will be invested in North America and Europe, with the balance deployed in fast-growing economies such as China and India.

I Squared will look at a variety of infrastructure assets such as energy, utilities and transport.

The fund manager is based in New York City and has other offices in London, Houston, Singapore Hong Kong and Delhi.

New Mexico has a 3.5% target allocation to infrastructure and has so far invested $130m in the asset class.

The pension fund’s commitment to Southern Pastures its first agricultural investment outside the US.

It will own, operate and improve the sustainable milk production from free-range, grass-based dairy farms in New Zealand while adhering to extensive ESG polices and standards.

“This commitment will give our agricultural portfolio an additional layer of diversification,” Canavan said. “The targeted return on this investment is in the range of a low to mid-teens IRR.”

Southern Pastures Management is raising a total of $350m. There will be no debt placed at either the asset or fund level.

Prem Maan, managing director and CEO at Southern Pastures Management, said: “Demand for dairy products in general – and free-range, grass-fed, animal welfare-based dairy products in particular –increases as global per capita incomes increase.

“For long-term pension fund investors interested in sustainability and exposure to global – and especially emerging Asian growth – this is attractive, regardless of short-term market fluctuations.”