The power of a pension fund

15 May 2017
| By Rollover |
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Amid all the reportage of the multi-billion dollar bid for private equity ownership of Fairfax Media’s most desirable assets, Rollover noted that one of the major backers of private equity outfit, TPG, was the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Putting aside Rollover’s cynicism about the long-term value of print media investments, he has to acknowledge that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has a pretty solid investment track-record, particularly with respect to infrastructure.

Amongst other things, the big Canadian institutional investor own the United Kingdom’s Bristol airport and has minority stakes in  Birmingham Airport, Copenhagen Airport, Brussels Airport, and London City Airport, not to mention some rail assets integral to the Channel Tunnel.

Scale and asset allocation issues mostly preclude Australian superannuation funds from such a focus, but let us not forget who owns NSW’s Ausgrid.

Rollover thinks that while investing in Fairfax will not breach the sole purpose test it may not be in members’ best interests.

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