London CIV is planning to hire a real assets head to lead its yet-to-be-launched real estate and infrastructure funds, the £36bn (€39bn) local authority pension asset pool said in a progress report.

In the report, which provides a quarterly update on developments at the London CIV in creating sub-funds, stated that it will “shortly move to recruit a head of real assets”.

In March this year, the asset pooling vehicle for the UK capital’s local government pension schemes selected StepStone to be its first infrastructure manager.

According to local council documents, the infrastructure fund is currently raising money from the 32 London borough pension funds that make up the pool’s client base.

The first close is scheduled for 1 April, with subsequent closes slated for 1 September 2019 and 1 April 2020.

The infrastructure launch was initially slated for last year but was paused following a review of the London CIV’s structure, operations and governance.

Frith takes on permanent COO role at GLIL

Also this week, GLIL Infrastructure, the £1.8bn infrastructure fund backed by a number of local government pension schemes, appointed Ted Frith COO.

Frith, who was named interim COO of the open-ended alternative investment fund in November 2018, will now take on the permanent role, GLIL said.

GLIL said Frith will ”co-ordinate GLIL’s activities as it looks to invest in more UK infrastructure projects and grow its investor base”.

Frith has held a number of senior positions including managing director of banking group Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, head of European distribution at Aspect Capital, director of Campion Capital as well as senior positions with Citibank and Pareto Partners.

GLIL was formed in 2015 with an initial £500m investment by Greater Manchester Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund Authority.

It expanded in 2016 to include the other Northern LGPS funds - Merseyside and West Yorkshire - and Lancashire County Pension Fund as part of the Local Pensions Partnership.