Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to invest up to $600 mn through NIIF

National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) of India and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) have announced an agreement for CPPIB to invest up to $600 million through the NIIF Master Fund. The agreement includes a commitment of $150 million in the NIIF Master Fund and co-investment rights of up to $450 million in future opportunities to invest alongside the NIIF Master Fund.

With CPPIB’s investment, NIIF Master Fund now has $2.1 billion in commitments and has achieved its initially targeted fund size. In addition, NIIF Master Fund investors have co-investment rights of $3 billion, which will enable the NIIF Master Fund to invest at the scale required for India’s large infrastructure requirements. The NIIF Master Fund invests equity capital in core infrastructure sectors in India, with a focus on transportation, energy and urban infrastructure. 

CPPIB joins Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Australian Super, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Temasek, Axis Bank, HDFC Group, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance as investors in the NIIF Master Fund, alongside Government of India.

CPPIB will also become a shareholder in National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, NIIF’s investment management company.

Sujoy Bose, Managing Director & CEO, NIIF, said: “We are delighted to welcome CPPIB as an investor in the NIIF Master Fund and as a shareholder in our investment management company. CPPIB is a prominent and established investor in India, and their investment demonstrates the alignment of the NIIF Master Fund’s investment strategy with what large international investors seek in the infrastructure sector in India. With this fourth close of the NIIF Master Fund, we are pleased that the fund has achieved its initial target size of $2.1 billion with domestic and international investors of the highest reputation and quality. We thank all our investors, and the Government of India, particularly the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of External Affairs, for their strong support.”

Scott Lawrence, Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure, CPPIB, said: “The opportunity to invest in, and alongside, NIIF complements our existing direct investment strategy in Indian infrastructure. Through this investment in the NIIF Master Fund, we are also able to deploy capital in additional projects and sectors across the country, providing further long-term opportunities for CPPIB to invest in Infrastructure in India.”

An institution anchored by the Government of India, NIIF is a collaborative investment platform for international and Indian investors with a mandate to invest equity capital in domestic infrastructure. It manages over $4 billion of capital commitments across three funds, each with its distinct investment strategy.

CPPIB is a professional investment management organisation that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to pay current benefits in the best interests of 20 million contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, CPPIB invests in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income instruments.