OMERS, which handles the retirement benefits for municipal workers in the province of Ontario in Canada, is set to expand its portfolio of infrastructure assets in Asia.
The investment manager is eyeing major stakes in installations from telecommunications networks to renewable energy facilities and road networks. OMERS Infra, the infrastructure investment advisory and management arm of OMERS, is particularly interested in Indonesia and India, given the countries’ large, fast-growing and urbanising populations.
“We see such attractive opportunities that I would expect that if you look, for example, five years down the road, India could be probably something between five and 10 per cent of our portfolio,” Ralph Berg, Global Head of Infrastructure at OMERS told DealStreetAsia in an interview.
Given the region’s secular growth trend, a key sector of interest is transport, Berg added. At the same time, with infrastructure a critical component of economic growth, OMERS expects to find supportive conditions for investment.
“I think the government has shown a very high commitment to continue the modernisation of the infrastructure stock in India, and we’re seeing the same in Indonesia and Malaysia,” Berg explained. “Those countries would probably have the largest number of opportunities for us.”
OMERS is one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans, with $109 billion in net assets as at the end of 2019. Currently, its global infrastructure assets account for 19 per cent of the fund’s total portfolio of assets; there are three assets in the Asia Pacific, accounting for 8 per cent of the portfolio.
These are a stake in Port of Melbourne acquired in 2016; a 22.4 per cent interest in IndInfravit Trust, which operates toll road concessions in India, acquired in 2019; and a 19.99 per cent interest in TransGrid, the electricity network operator in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia, acquired last month.
For 2019, OMERS recorded an 11.9 per cent net investment return total across its strategies, or $11.5 billion.
Meanwhile, the fund has also beefed up its infrastructure unit by roping in Prateek Maheshwari, who joined the Asia Pacific team last year.
Maheshwari was with Global Infrastructure Partners for 12 years, working in the energy and transport sectors across the globe. He was appointed Head of Asia for OMERS Infrastructure in June and is expected to relocate to Singapore next year from London, where he is based now. His move will bring the OMERS’ private equity and infrastructure team in Singapore to six.
