Eastspring Investments eyes infra projects

Eastspring Investments, the asset management arm of the Prudential plc in Asia, said yesterday is it eyeing infrastructure investments across Asia, including the Philippines.

During a roundtable discussion, Eastspring Investments chairman Donald Kanak told reporters the company has been gearing up in recent years to invest in infrastructure projects across the region.

“In the last several years, we’ve had, at a regional level, built our capability for infrastructure investing. We’ve built a very good team and we’ve begun investing in infrastructure...We have a deal pipeline across the region, including the Philippines,” Kanak said.

According to Kanak, Eastsping has decided to start investing in infrastructure to increase the company’s assets and ensure clients it can pay its liabilities in the long-term.

“The key aspect to managing insurance money is you try to match assets and liabilities. So if you have a long-term promise — let’s say in 20 years or 30 years, somebody will need the money — you want to try finding long term assets to match that. So infrastructure, historically, around the world has been a very good asset class,” he said.

Kanak expects opportunities in infrastructure projects in the Philippines due to the economies high-growth track.

He said Eastspring is planning to invest in public-private partnership (PPP) projects on infrastructure, including powerplants, communication facilities, roads, hospitals and classrooms.

“I am suggesting publicprivate partnerships. The government has a key role in these deals, in terms of providing policy stability and sometimes, title to land,” he said.

Aside from its own initiatives, Kanak said Eastspring Investments has also partnered with the International Financial Corp. for its managed co-lending portfolio program for infrastructure.

The program seeks to raise $5 billion from global institutional investors to modernize infrastructure in emerging markets by 2021.