GLIL secures record £1.2 billion fundraising to drive UK infrastructure investment

20 April 2022

GLIL Infrastructure LLP (“GLIL”) has raised a further £1.2 billion from its members – its biggest fundraising since the fund launched in 2015 – for further investment in core UK infrastructure assets.

The additional capital commitment comes from across all of GLIL’s Local Government Pension Scheme (“LGPS”) fund members, including Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire Pension Funds, known collectively as Northern LGPS, Lancashire County Pension Fund, Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund Authority, which form Local Pensions Partnership Investments, and DC workplace pension provider Nest.

It takes the open-ended investment fund’s total committed capital to £3.625 billion, of which it has already deployed £2.1 billion into a diverse infrastructure portfolio that includes renewable energy production, energy transition infrastructure, schools, hospitals, trains, water, and ports.

Ted Frith, COO at GLIL Infrastructure, said:

“Pension funds are playing an increasingly important part in UK infrastructure, and their capital is critical to driving further investment in the sector. This fundraising, our largest ever, reflects our members’ commitment to the asset class, but also their support for our proposition and investment strategy. Infrastructure provides an attractive risk and return profile for pension funds and connects their pensioners and investors with real value creation and some of the nation’s most exciting projects, from renewable energy to trains and ports to schools and hospitals.

“With the support of all our members, we’ve already deployed more than £2.1 billion during our seven-year track record of investment and we maintain a strong pipeline of new investment opportunities. We support the UK’s energy transition and work consistently to identify sustainable, cost-effective assets that provide reliable returns for many years to come.”

GLIL was established in 2015 to drive direct investment in core UK infrastructure and support the long-term objectives of pension funds and local authority pooling. In 2021, it became a UK infrastructure investment partner for Nest, to support the government-established workplace pension provider’s commitment to deploy capital into infrastructure in the UK, and around the world, by the end of the decade. Recently, GLIL won the LGPS Investment Strategy of the Year category at the LAPF Investments Awards.

GLIL currently has 13 investments that include equity stakes in Anglian Water, Clyde Wind Farm, Iona Capital, Rock Rail, Forth Ports, Semperian, Cubico Sustainable Investments, Agility Trains East, Smart Meter Assets, and Flexion Energy.

Most recently, it acquired a majority investment in Invis Energy’s portfolio of 11 operational onshore wind farms that provide around 11% of the Republic of Ireland’s installed wind capacity – its first major transaction outside of the UK.