AustralianSuper & Canadian fund commit $ 500-mn infra investment

AustralianSuper, Australia‘s largest pension fund, and leading Canadian fund the Ontario Teachers‘ Pension Plan, have announced that they will invest $250m each in India‘s infrastructure-focused sovereign wealth fund, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, with the potential of increasing that to up to $1bn each in the future. The government plans to power the country‘s economic development by building motorways, high-speed railways and efficient ports but has struggled to attract investors to a sector that is notorious for legal challenges, bureaucratic delays, and graft. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in India's infrastructure, said that it was planning to open a credit business in India to seize on the post-IL&FS upheaval. The Australian and Canadian deal brings assets managed by NIIF‘s main infrastructure fund, the largest in India, to $1.8bn.