Cezary Podkul

The $156m deal is the pension’s first direct infrastructure investment and the third stake majority owner GIP has sold to an institutional investor.

For pensions looking to get into infrastructure, the inaugural ranking of the 30 largest infrastructure investors in the world – compiled by Infrastructure Investor magazine – shows that direct investing is the way to build a hefty investment programme in the asset class.

An investment policy approved by the trustees of the Florida State Board of Administration will give the state’s $110bn retirement system the flexibility to invest up to 2% of its assets in infrastructure. The move is part of a broader portfolio transition that shifted about 10% of allocations away from listed equities and fixed income towards alternatives.

Carlyle Infrastructure Partners has invested in the seventh-largest school bus transportation business in the US.

Bank-affiliated infrastructure platforms dominate The Infrastructure Investor 30, a new annual ranking of industry players. Together the 30 largest infrastructure investment groups have formed $140.5bn of capital for the asset class over the past five years.

The firm will seed a joint venture that could bring as much as $1.5bn in purchasing power to solar power projects.

The head of the private equity firm 3i’s North American infrastructure team said his departure was ‘part of a broader contraction’ in 3i’s infrastructure business. But 3i executives Cressida Hogg and Bob Stefanowski said in an email that the firm intends to remain in the North American infrastructure market.

The United States Infrastructure Corporation finds and marks where underground gas, telephone, electrical or cable lines are located before construction begins.

Diloshini Seneviratne, a senior investment officer on CalSTRS' private equity team, will lead the $133bn pension's foray into infrastructure. CIO Chris Ailman told PEI the private equity 2-and-20 model doesn't make sense for infrastructure.

Fundraising was a 'long and difficult process' for the North America-focused fund, which has already spent $215m of the money it has raised.