The NZ Super Fund, a sovereign wealth fund in New Zealand, has submitted an unsolicited proposal to the government offering to assess the viability of the Auckland Light Rail Project for commercial investment.
“The government has signaled its intention to accelerate core infrastructure investment in a number of areas,” said Matt Whineray, acting chief executive. “We consider the Auckland Light Rail network to be an infrastructure project of sufficient scale and significance to be an attractive prospect for investment. We wish to explore whether a NZ Super Fund-led consortium leveraging our international relationships can fund and deliver the project, on a fully commercial basis.”
The NZ Super Fund has identified as its potential partner CDPQ Infra, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) responsible for developing and operating infrastructure projects.
CDPQ Infra is responsible for developing, building and operating Montreal’s 67-km light rail network. Other members could potentially be added to the consortium.
The NZ Super Fund understands and respects the government’s need to run a procurement process and looks forward to further engagement with the NZ Transport Agency.
Currently around 2 percent of the NZ$38 billion ($26.55 billion) NZ Super Fund is invested in infrastructure globally.
