Nest Seeds New Infrastructure Debt Fund With $708M Investment

The U.K. pension and IFM Investors intend to focus on the European market.



The National Employment Savings Trust, the U.K.’s largest pension fund by membership,
announced Tuesday that it will seed a new infrastructure debt fund from Australian asset manager IFM Investors Pty. Ltd. with a 530-million-pound ($708 million) investment. 

The debt fund will focus on European sub-investment-grade infrastructure projects. According to a Nest statement, the fund will amplify its holdings of U.K.-based private assets such as fiber, wind, waste-to-energy, bus and rail infrastructure.  

Nest finalized the purchase of a 10% stake in IFM Investors holding company Industry Super Holdings earlier this month. The asset manager is co-owned by Nest, its first international investor, and 15 Australian superannuation funds. IFM managed $144.8 billion in assets as of March 31. 

The investment is part of Nest’s plan to invest 5 billion pounds in private markets through IFM by 2030. The pension fund is a signatory of the recent Mansion House Accord, which calls for the U.K’s defined contribution plans to invest at least 10% of their assets in alternative investments by the end of the decade, with at least 5% of their assets invested in U.K.-based private assets.  

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“We’re pleased to have taken this exciting first step with IFM, one of the world’s leading global infrastructure investment managers,” Nest CIO Liz Fernando said in a statement. “We came together to develop sophisticated investment strategies like this one, and we look forward to co-creating more opportunities on behalf of our members.” 

Nest already allocates 17% of its assets to alternative investments and aims to increase this figure to 30% by 2030. Following the signing of the Mansion House Accord, Fernando commented that about 60% of the pension fund’s private assets are invested domestically. 

Nest manages $60 billion in assets for 13.5 million members, as of September 2024.  

Related Stories: 

Nest to Acquire 10% Stake in IFM Investors in Alts Buildout 

With Assets at $11.2B, UK’s Nest to Make Domestic Investments More Transparent 

UK’s Nest Hires J.P. Morgan’s Campbell Global for Timberland Fund 

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