The California Public Employees鈥� Retirement System is to invest in Asia-Pacific infrastructure for the first time.
The US pension fund has formed a AUD1bn (鈧�709m) joint venture with Australia鈥檚 QIC, which will source and manage assets.
Paul Mouchakkaa, senior investment officer for real assets at CalPERS, said the partnership was a 鈥済reat opportunity鈥� to expand the fund鈥檚 infrastructure portfolio and enter the Asia-Pacific market.
CalPERS revealed it would invest in two global infrastructure funds, but it has yet to invest in the Asia-Pacific region.
The fund approved a $300m (鈧�270m) commitment to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners II and $250m to the UBS International Infrastructure Fund II in August last year.
Ross Israel, head of QIC鈥檚 Global Infrastructure, said the decision to co-invest with CalPERS was made after discussions over 鈥渁 number of years鈥� between the pair.
Israel said: 鈥淭his partnership, in combination with the launch earlier this year of the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund and other separately managed account clients, increases the size, scope and level of control QIC can bring to future infrastructure opportunities for the benefit of all our clients.鈥�
In , QIC said it raised 拢338m (鈧�472m) for a global infrastructure fund from institutional investors, including an Asian sovereign wealth fund and an Australian pension scheme.
The expectation among market observers is that more capital will come out of Australia in the coming months as its state governments begin to privatise infrastructure assets.
