Aussie Invasion: QIC Takes its Game to the U.S.

2015年5月，加州公共雇员的退休系统宣布，它与澳大利亚的昆士兰投资公司（QIC）合作，在亚太基础设施中投资10亿美元（7.64亿美元）。这项投资最终可能会增加巨头美国养老基金的21亿美元的基础设施投资组合。虽然27.9亿美元Calpers能够投资大，真正的消息是infrastructure在美国养老基金投资组合中最终可能在多年努力发挥与加拿大和澳大利亚同行一样有意义的角色。

As美国的基础设施继续崩溃，签署新的，私人救援这些资产的手段最终旨在抓住QIC在纽约市旗帜。政府拥有的公司是一家专业资产经理，最初成立为一名澳大利亚公共养老金基金，加入了欧洲，澳大利亚和加拿大养老金投资者的行列，他们已经建立了纽约前哨，以获得基于U.S的投资。但与Caisse deDépôtetet inincébec不同加拿大养老金计划投资委员会, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (OMERS) — which invest purely on their own behalf — QIC is also seeking mandates from U.S. investors such as Calpers.

“We’re not a big global player likeBlackRockor Blackstone,” says Damien Frawley, a former professional rugby player who joined QIC in 2012 as CEO after seven years filling that role at BlackRock Australia. “So we need to be very targeted in terms of who we engage with.”

QIC has more than 90 clients globally and A$74 billion in real estate, private equity, infrastructure and other assets. Its New York office, which was established in late 2014, is its third site in the U.S. but only its first to raise capital, not just deploy it. The Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, opened in 2010 and 2011, respectively, were set up to invest in U.S. private equity and real estate.

Founded in 1991 to manage globally sourced assets for the state of Queensland’s defined benefit pension, QIC started with three funds: multi asset, real estate and liquid strategies. In the early 2000s fund officials decided to compete in the open market. The feeling was, if this effort were successful, it would justify having high quality management that needed to pass rigorous due diligence processes. In addition, the Queensland government benefits from QIC’s diversified client base, say fund officials. The revenue doesn’t hurt either. At the end of June, QIC reported one of its strongest financial years to date, with a net profit of A$99.9 million, sending a A$56.5 million dividend to the state Treasury in Brisbane.

Qic于2001年在2001年举行了第一个非政府澳大利亚客户及其次年第一国际客户。到2004年，它有50个客户，其中包括澳大利亚退休基金，学校，大学等机构。然后在2005年Qic推出了私募股权基金，由基础设施车辆进行了明年。

“基础设施没有15年前一种资产类别,” notes Vittorio Lacagnina, hired in 2014 to be responsible for originating, executing and managing assets across North America and Europe from the New York office. Lacagnina, who gained his infrastructure investing ex-perience at New York–based SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners and its predecessor firm, Babcock & Brown, is well aware that the asset class is a tough sell in the U.S.

According to Stanford University’s Global Projects Center, 11 other pension funds besides Calpers have deployed $5 billion to overseas infrastructure investments over the past five years, while collectively investing less than $800 million domestically. That results in a 2.8 percent average allocation for the 28 U.S. public pension funds that have invested in infrastructure compared with much larger allocations of 14 percent by AustralianSuper, the country’s largest pension fund, and 19.4 percent by OMERS.

吉尔·艾伯（Pension基础设施）斯坦福养老金基础设施协作计划主任，他以前领导了美国财政部的40亿美元的小型商业贷款基金，Bemoans缺乏公共养老基金缺乏机会，将美元分配给美国基础设施。她责备“我们根深蒂固的代理商资本主义”的脚下，或者换句话说，在城市和国家运营运输办事处以及鼓励使用中介机构而不是直接共同投资的公共养老金资金的公共财政人员，加拿大和澳大利亚的养老基金。“没有胃口，比美国的目前的制度少就支付内部公共财政官员或养老金官员数百万美元。

Lacagnina recognizes the challenges ahead of him, starting with the long U.S. history of funding bridges, tunnels and highways through the municipal bond market with attractive tax advantages. While he isn’t advocating a complete overthrow of the muni market, QIC’s infrastructure expert notes its inefficiencies: “That creates a situation where infrastructure is mostly procured by the public sector, which results in delays and is often not up to the standards one expects from the project.”

传统美国公共建筑项目的另一个缺点仍然是Lacagnina，这是一个值得注意的缺乏统一性。每个州都以不同的方式管理，每个国家运输部都有不同的观点。Qic Favors的伙伴关系方法是基于的风险转移在公共和私人实体之间，承认哪一个更好地承担了哪种风险。

“That’s where the pension equation comes in,” explains Lacagnina, pointing to a potential primary source of capital for these projects and Eicher’s raison d’etre. In their turn, pension funds need a series of cash flows that match their long-term liabilities, as well as the hedge that comes with an asset whose revenue model is tied to inflation.

尽管在全球范围内具有吸引力，但基础设施仍未在美国计划的赞助商中仍未从事纽约咨询公司威利斯塔尔·沃森的纽约咨询公司威利斯·沃森研究领域。“六年前，每个人都认为美国是下一个基础设施市场，”他解释道。缓慢增长的部分原因可以归因于其低收回期望和市政债券市场，以及文化因素。QIC的Frawley说，美国人不喜欢向外国人销售他们的高速公路和港口的想法。

在QIC和更大，更加根深蒂固的经理的充满希望的标志中，德克萨斯州德克萨斯州的一个收费袋和桥梁，俄亥俄州和北卡罗来纳州的混合袋已经进入私人手。有些是极端情况的结果，如印第安纳州收费道路破产，使其2015年5月以57亿美元购买的IFM投资者，这是一个20岁的30岁的澳大利亚退休金基金的联盟。“鉴于一些这些资产的修复状态，鉴于这些资产的修复状态，IFM的北美基础设施负责人Julio Garcia（IFM）是2008年的440亿美元的经理，北美基础设施负责人的纽约办事处举行了更多的投资。U.S. pension clients IFM counts the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Illinois State Board of Investment and the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio. In the past, IFM has both partnered and competed with its Aussie mates at QIC.

自2016年初,QIC已经加强ts investment muscle, adding New York–based Eric Belman, a former nuclear engineer who most recently led GE Power’s global M&A strategy, and Jim Christensen, former CIO of Telstra Super. QIC investors — especially infrastructure-mad Aussies — approve of the U.S. initiative. “Organizations like QIC have proven to be better owners than the government,” says David Elia, CEO of Hostplus, an Australian superannuation fund with 95,000 members and more than A$17.5 billion in retirement assets.

QIC believes the time is right for the U.S. to shift its infrastructure ownership to the private sector — and to U.S. public pension funds. “The U.S. is beginning to take a broader view,” says Frawley.

更多地获得更多pensions.

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