The UK’s Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) Multi-Strategy Infrastructure Fund (MSIF) – its inaugural in-house fund – has made its first equity investment.

The PIP was set up in 2011 and is backed by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) as a method of channelling pension fund investment into UK infrastructure.

The MSIF, targeting a £1bn (€1.2bn) capital raise, had by its first close in April attracted £125m from the West Midlands Pension Fund, Strathclyde Pension Fund and others.

The PiP said MSIF bought a portfolio of 31 individual wind turbines from Ingenious Infrastructure and AGR’s Golden Square Energy joint venture.

Mike Weston, chief executive at the PiP, said: “This first equity investment for the PiP Multi-Strategy Infrastructure Fund marks another landmark in the development of the PiP.

“We are pleased to have been able to work with the sellers, Golden Square Energy, as well as our adviser B Capital Partners, on this proprietary transaction, which provides our pension scheme investors with the secured, long-term, inflation-linked cash flows they are seeking to support their accrued pension payment obligations.”

The PiP said predictable FiT revenues, combined with guaranteed availability under long-term O&M contracts, would provide investors with 20 years of inflation-linked cash flows to help meet long-term pension obligations.

The MSIF will continue to build on the investment, and its previous investment-grade, inflation-linked debt refinancing transaction, to deliver a broadly diversified portfolio of UK infrastructure assets for its pension scheme investors.

The MSIF is the first internally managed fund for the PiP, owned by a number of the UK’s largest pension funds, including the Pension Protection Fund and Strathclyde.

The MSIF bought debt in a rooftop solar provider in July this year.

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