Pension funds take stakes in Forth Ports

A group of Australian and UK pension funds have bought minority stakes in Forth Ports following the sale of the Edinburgh-headquartered business last week.

GLIL Infrastructure, a joint venture made up of UK local government pension funds, Australian financial services firm First State Super and construction industry pension fund Cbus have acquired holdings from Canada’s PSP Investments.

PSP, which manages Canadian public sector pension funds and has been a long-standing investor in Forth Ports, last week bought previous majority owner Arcus’s 62.6 per cent stake in the business and said it was looking to partner with other backers.

Forth Ports, which has more than 1,000 staff, owns and operates eight commercial ports in the UK including Dundee on the Firth of Tay and six on the Firth of Forth – Leith, Grangemouth, Rosyth, Methil, Burntisland and Kirkcaldy, as well as Tilbury on the Thames.

Chief executive Charles Hammond said partnering with high-quality global investment firms would enable the firm to deliver on its “ambitious expansion and investment programme around the UK”.

“This now gives the group a long-term stable shareholding base which will help and support us in implementing our growth strategy. We look forward to continuing our long and stable association with PSP Investments, while at the same time commencing a new partnership with First State Super, Cbus and GLIL,” he said. 0 Ambitious expansion – CEO Charles Hammond