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.