The U.K.'s Northern Pool partnership is set to increase its allocation to alternative investment fund GLIL Infrastructure by £400 million ($522.6 million) to £1.27 billion, the £46 billion pool of local authority pension funds said in a statement Monday.
Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Manchester, will increase its commitment by £150 million to £650 million; West Yorkshire Pension Fund, Bradford, will increase its commitment by £125 million to £375 million; and Merseyside Pension Fund, Liverpool, will double its commitment to £250 million, a spokeswoman for the 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," Ian Greenwood, chair of the Northern Pool, said in the release.
Separately, the £16 billion Local Pensions Partnership, which consists of the London Pensions Fund Authority; Berkshire Pension Fund, Maidenhead; and Lancashire County Pension Fund, Preston; boosted its allocation to GLIL by about £150 million to £550 million, a LPP spokesman said.
Michael O'Higgins, chair of Local Pensions Partnership, added in the release: "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 U.K. infrastructure and delivering long-term liability matching returns."
GLIL was established in April 2015, seeded with £500 million of commitments. It targets core infrastructure projects in the U.K. and has minority stakes in Anglian Water, the Clyde wind farm project and social infrastructure company Semperian.
