Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Leeds, England, made £1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) in commitments to infrastructure, private credit and private equity funds and co-investment opportunities run by 11 money managers.
The commitments by the pool, which is made up of 11 U.K. local government pension funds with combined assets of about £60 billion, mark the final step in Border to Coast's three-year private markets program and round out £5.7 billion of planned allocations, it said in a news release.
For infrastructure, the fund made two allocations: a $204 million commitment to Axium Infrastructure North America IV, an open-ended fund that invests in core transportation, energy and social infrastructure assets in North America; and a €175 million ($175 million) commitment to Arcus Infrastructure Partners' Arcus European Infrastructure Fund, which primarily targets investments in European telecommunications, transport and energy sectors, focusing on emerging subsectors.
In private credit, the pool made five investments:
- A $246 million commitment to HPS Investment Partners' HPS Core Senior Lending Fund II, which invests in directly originated, senior-secured term loans for middle- and upper-middle-market companies, primarily in North America.
- A $220 million commitment to Brookfield Asset Management's Brookfield Real Estate Finance Fund VI, a real estate debt strategy focused on high-quality property assets in North America and western Europe.
- A $172 million commitment to a KKR fund , which targets investments in private asset-backed finance opportunities in the U.S., Europe and developed Asia.
- A $132 million commitment to Ares Management's Ares SSG Capital Partners VI, focusing on opportunities including restructuring situations, deep value acquisitions and other opportunities in Asia.
- A £185 million commitment to a BlackRock European middle-market debt fund , which focuses on senior secured lending to middle-market companies.
The pool's allocations to private equity managers in the latest set of commitments were:
- A $100 million commitment to StepStone VC Opportunities VII, focusing on expansion-stage and late-stage venture capital investments in the technology, communications and health-care sectors.
- A $100 million commitment to General Catalyst Group XI — Aggregator, which brings together commitments to three underlying venture funds: creation or seed-stage, ignition or early-stage and endurance or late-stage companies.
- A €100 million commitment to PAI Partners, a pan-European manager targeting buyout investments in upper middle-market sector across food and consumer, business services, industrials and health care in the U.S. and Europe. The fund was not specified.
Rounding out the latest allocations were two co-investments. The pool made a $68 million co-investment alongside DigitalBridge Investment Management into the Vertical Bridge REIT, an owner and operator of mobile communication infrastructure sites in the U.S.; and a £60 million co-investment alongside KKR into John Laing Group, a developer, owner and operator of public infrastructure assets.
"With all £5.7 billion of assets committed within our first program, we are now looking ahead to the opportunities we can pursue as part of our second program," Mark Lyon, head of internal management, said in the release.
The second three-year program was announced in April with initial commitments from member pension funds of £4.1 billion.
Spokesmen for Border to Coast could not immediately be reached for further details on the commitments.
