New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC) is planning to invest an additional $200m (€169.6m) in infrastructure this year as it seeks to increase its domestic exposure.
IPE Real Assets reported in March this year that New Mexico SIC is investing in Macquarie’s second Asian infrastructure fund.
Vince Smith, deputy state investment officer for New Mexico SIC, told IPE Real Assets at the time that investing in two Macquarie Asian infrastructure funds meant it would be adequately exposed to the region.
“Our plan going forward would be to have more infrastructure in other regions of the world”, Smith said at the time, adding that this would mostly be in the US.
In a meeting document, New Mexico SIC said it is investing the $200m for the rest of 2018 to take advantage of investment opportunities in the US.
New Mexico SIC, which manages New Mexico’s permanent endowment, will be making commitments in infrastructure that would include debt and equity strategies mostly through funds.
Infrastructure investments form part of the real assets portfolio and the sovereign wealth fund is targeting a 40% weighting to infrastructure. It recently increased its maximum weighting from 40% to 50%.
New Mexico SIC also expects to restrict its investment in timberland, another sub-sector of the real assets portfolio, due to limited investment opportunities. As a result, the target range for timberland has been reduced from 0-40% to 0-20% with an interim target of 12.5%.
New Mexico SIC said timberland unfunded commitments have been reduced and released by two managers. These unfunded commitments from the Brookfield Timberlands Fund V and FIA Timber Growth and Value Partners Fund amount to $26.6m.
