Interaksyon.com, 31 July 2012
MANILA – The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday said it has invested in a $625 million private equity fund for Philippine infrastructure projects, the first of its kind in the country and meant to jumpstart the Aquino administration’s Public-Private Partnership Program.
In a statement, the ADB said its investment in the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure fund would add to that by state-owned Government Service Insurance System, Dutch pension fund asset manager APG and the Macquarie Group.
“Apart from our direct equity investment, ADB’s participation can help mobilize additional investment in the Philippines from top tier international partners, foster competition in domestic infrastructure finance, and establish a secondary market for well-performing infrastructure assets,” said Philip Erquiaga, ADB-Private Sector Operations Department director general.
Hans-Martin Aerts, head of Infrastructure Asia at APG Asset Management in Hong Kong, said its investment will help reduce the infrastructure funding gap in the Philippines.
“PINAI provides for an excellent investment opportunity and we expect it to enjoy an early mover advantage and to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our clients: pension funds in the Netherlands with combined assets of over €300 billion (around $367 billion),” he said.
Robert Vergara, GSIS president, said the pension fund’s participation would boost its return on investments, “which will redound to the greater benefit of our members and pensioners.”
According to the Philippine Development Plan, the country would need the private sector to fill in 12 percent of the infrastructure funding gap.
PINAI will focus on five to 10 investments of approximately $50 million to $125 million each to provide for portfolio diversification. Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, which has $97 billion of assets under management across 24 countries, will manage PINAI.
