New York City Retirement Systems made a $9.5 million co-investment commitment to an infrastructure investment vehicle managed by American Triple I, according a news release on the website of city Comptroller Brad Lander, investment adviser and custodian for the $277 billion pension system.
American Triple I is “an investor, owner, developer and manager of infrastructure assets and infrastructure-focused companies,” the news release said. The name of the investment fund wasn't immediately available. ATI is a new relationship for the city pension system.
Four of the five independent pension funds within the system are participating in this commitment, representing teachers, police, public employees and board of education employees. The pension fund representing firefighters is not involved. A spokeswoman for Lander said she didn’t know why this fund declined to participate.
The agreement with ATI is part of the comptroller’s bureau of asset management’s emerging and diverse manager program, which invests nearly $20 billion with emerging and diverse managers across all asset classes on behalf of the New York City retirement systems, the news release said.
“As an asset class, infrastructure has presented exciting opportunities for our pension systems while delivering on our promise to secure strong, risk-adjusted returns for our members and beneficiaries,” said Petya Nikolova, deputy CIO and head of infrastructure,” in the news release. “Our partnership with ATI will allow us to invest in world-class infrastructure.”
BlackRock's infrastructure solutions unit serves as the infrastructure multimanager for all five of the New York City retirement systems, partnering on emerging manager investment opportunities, the release said.
“We are pleased to partner with the New York City Retirement Systems … and to work with BlackRock infrastructure solutions to facilitate this opportunity for ATI,” said David J. Cibrian, co-founder, managing partner, CEO and CIO of American Triple I, in the release.
