AMP Capital driving IIF towards €1bn portfolio
THE State-backed Irish Infrastructure Fund is on course to grow its portfolio of assets to €1bn in the next five years as Australian partner, AMP Capital, ramps up the pace of acquisitions.
AMP Capital, a subsidiary of the sprawling Sydney-based financial services giant, AMP, spearheads the investment decisions of IIF, which was formed in 2012 and is backed to the tune of €250m by the State’s sovereign wealth fund, ISIF.
In the UK, the Australian investment manager, headed by Adam Tindall, has quietly amassed a significant portfolio, scooping up stakes in infrastructure assets like Thames Water, Newcastle Airport and Angel Trains, a rolling-stock company.
In Ireland, the firm, which has A$179bn of assets under management globally, is starting to extend its reach, including targeting the health sector.
As a member of the sole remaining consortium in the Government’s National Broadband process, IIF’s grip in the communication sector is set to deepen.
The fund owns a 78pc stake of Enet, a builder and operator of fibre broadband networks, and has linked forces with SSE, Ireland’s second-largest energy utility, and international heavyweight John Laing Group, to make a tilt at the Government’s broadband contract.
Despite Communications Minister Denis Naughten’s strident denials the one-horse race is a done deal, the emphasis has shifted from competing bids to the consortium’s pricing and funding capacity. IIF also has the management contract on the Convention Centre on Dublin’s Spencer Dock, its second-largest exposures in the fund in terms of asset value.
The fund snapped up the right to run the State-owned property in 2015 along with an option to construct a 330-bed hotel on the site, it is understood a deal with a developer has yet to be struck.
AMP Capital’s Philip Doyle, a principal of IIF, declined to comment on the site.
But he said the fund is targeting additional investments in communications and healthcare. “They are our topline preferences” he said, with “energy, social and transport” industries a secondary focus.
The IIF has established Valley Healthcare as a vehicle targeting primary care centres in Ireland.
So far it has snapped up centres in Wicklow and in Mayo, and aims to expand the network to 15 centres within three to five years. The centres are to be managed by Glencar Healthcare, chaired by former HSE CEO Brendan Drumm.