The local authority pension fund partners of GLIL Infrastructure (GLIL) are committing an additional £550m (€626m) to the platform, bringing the total they have invested and committed to more than £1.8bn.
The open-ended GLIL partnership is made up of the Northern Pool and Local Pensions Partnership (LPP), which manages the assets of Berkshire, Lancashire and London Pensions Fund Authority.
From the Northern Pool, Greater Manchester Pension Fund is pledging £150m to increase its contribution to £650m, West Yorkshire Pension Fund will increase its commitment by £125m to £375m and Merseyside Pension Fund will double its contribution to £250m.
LPP will add the remaining contribution.
Originally launched in April 2015, GLIL targets core infrastructure projects, mainly in the UK. So far GLIL has allocated nearly £900m to key investments covering greenfield sites, regulated utilities and transport upgrades.
GLIL’s portfolio includes minority stakes in Anglian Water, the Clyde windfarm project and social infrastructure company Semperian.
Ian Greenwood, the chair of the Northern Pool, said: “GLIL already leads the way in meeting Government ambitions for local authority pension funds investing in infrastructure projects.
“Now, by increasing our scale in this way, we not only are better able to work alongside some of the most sophisticated infrastructure investors in the world, we also have greater access to the widest pool of available investments at the best possible price.”
Michael O’Higgins, the chair of Local Pensions Partnership said: “LPP is delighted to increase its commitment to GLIL.
“These increased partner pledges will help us to build on GLIL’s successful track record of collaborative partnership between like-minded institutions in the local government pensions sector who share a common interest in increasing exposure to UK infrastructure and delivering long-term liability matching returns.”