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Investors - APRIL 1, 2015

CPPIB partners with Hermes Infrastructure in U.K. ports deal

by Zoe Loza

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the United Kingdom’s Hermes Infrastructure have acquired up to a 30 percent share in Associated British Ports. There is the potential for the joint venture to acquire another 3.3 percent, subject to pre-emption rights.

The 33.3 percent ownership is valued at £1.6 billion ($2.4 billion) and is being purchased from U.S.-based GS Infrastructure Partners and London-based Infracapital. The deal is expected to be completed by summer 2015.

GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and Canada’s Borealis Infrastructure will each remain owners of one-third of ABP, the U.K.’s leading port group, which owns and operates 21 ports in England, Scotland and Wales.

Toronto-based CPPIB is a significant investor in the United Kingdom with approximately £7.6 billion ($11.3 billion) invested in real estate, infrastructure and other funds.

The investment board recently invested $1.17 billion in a U.K. student-housing portfolio, though the majority of CPPIB’s U.K. investments are in office buildings and retail centers. This includes the 2011 co-investment of $2.8 billion with APG in a London mall and the $1.4 billion 2013 co-investment with Hammerson in a shopping mall in Birmingham, England.

This is not CPPIB’s first investment with Hermes; the two groups co-invested $218.7 million in London’s South Bank Tower, a 269,000-square-foot office building, in 2014.


 

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