The Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) is set to appoint a chief executive to oversee the governance and investment decisions of the vehicle, the National Association of Pension Funds said.
NAPF chief executive Joanne Segars said that an independent “general partner” was close to being appointed who would oversee the PIP.
Segars said: “This will be a big and serious and properly-run entity and it will need someone to manage that to make sure the limited partners who invest in the PIP are getting what they want, they are reporting back to them and make sure the managers are running the fund in the long-term interest of the investors.
“We will have a general partner sitting outside the asset managers to make sure we have that alignment of interests and that governance oversight so the fund is run in the long-term interests of the investors. We are going through the process of identifying who that person might be.”
However, she said while the PIP was reaching the end of the process of selecting a fund manager to run the vehicle, it was not yet in a position to announce who that might be.
She also said that membership of the PIP still consisted of the original 10 founding investors, but added it would be opened to investors “of all shapes and sizes” once the fund hits its first close.
Unsurprisingly, Segars said the PIP would predominantly focus on UK infrastructure projects because the PIP wants inflation-linked assets, but would not be drawn on specific sectors it might invest in. “I don’t think we will be a fund investing in Africa,” she added.
Segars also reaffirmed the PIP’s intention to be a long-term buy and hold investor, rather than adopting a private equity-type mentality.
Addressing concerns over construction risk, Pension Protection Fund (PPF) chief executive Alan Rubenstein said there was a “growing understanding” among the initial 10 investors about the risks around new projects compared to when the platform was first announced.
He said: “We have always been clear construction risk was not an issue in the sense there are ways to lay that off. Basically the builders want to build, the banks want to lend and we want to own the finished assets, so there are a number of ways you can bring those together to make it work.”
So far the PIP has attracted investment from the PPF, West Midlands Pension Fund, Strathclyde Pension Fund, BAE Systems Pensions Funds, BT Pension Scheme, Railways Pension Scheme, British Airways Pension Fund, London Pensions Fund Authority, Lloyds TSB Group Pension Schemes and a tenth investor who wishes to remain anonymous.
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