Dutch Pension Boosts Infrastructure with Portfolio Acquisition

Dutch pension manager APG has extended its partnership with Aberdeen Asset Management to take on a portfolio of 16 infrastructure assets.

APG—which runs €386 billion on behalf of Dutch pension funds—and Aberdeen have taken on the portfolio from DIF, a Netherlands-based infrastructure specialist. The assets acquired cover the health, education, sports, and accommodation sectors, and are based across Europe and the UK.

Ron Boots, head of European infrastructure at APG, said public-private partnership assets were “at the core of APG’s infrastructure strategy due to their proven robustness and long-term high cash flow visibility”.

Neither APG nor Aberdeen revealed the value of the portfolio, but Boots said it was “sizeable and high quality”.

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Partnerships between pension funds and asset managers are growing in popularity. In September, the New York state pension system signed a strategic partnership deal with Goldman Sachs Asset Management to manage $2 billion (€1.6 billion) worth of global equity strategies. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System agreed a similar deal with UBS Global Asset Management in August, forming a $500 million infrastructure investment partnership.

In a separate deal, Aberdeen has sold a portfolio of property assets to two Danish pensions, Industriens Pension and ATP. The portfolio has been split equally between the two funds, and was valued at DKr515 million (€69 million) in a statement on Industriens Pension’s website.

George Soros has backed Bill Gross’ new strategy at Janus Capital to the tune of $500 million.

It is Gross’ single biggest mandate since he joined after quitting PIMCO at the end of September.

The investment will be managed in a separate strategic account outside of Gross’ Janus Global Unconstrained Bond mutual fund, the company said in a notice on its website. With the investment sitting outside the main fund, Soros is protected from the effects of inflows and outflows from other investors.

Via Janus Capital’s Twitter account, Gross said he was “honoured to be managing a new unconstrained strategic account for Soros Fund Management”.

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According to Reuters, Soros Fund Management’s CIO Scott Bessent met Gross soon after he quit PIMCO to discuss a potential investment.

The investment more than doubles the assets currently run under the Global Unconstrained Bond strategy, which swelled to $442 million by the end of the month after inflows of more than $350 million, according to Morningstar.

It will also act as a significant vote of confidence for Gross at his new employer. Billions of dollars have exited PIMCO and its Total Return fund, the flagship fund he ran at the firm, following the company co-founder’s departure, but investors have not made the straight switch to Janus.

On making the switch to Janus, Gross claimed his new role would allow greater flexibility to focus on investing without the burden of running a large organisation. He also cited the far smaller size of the new fund as allowing him to operate under the radar of many other bond investors.

Soros Fund Management runs more than $28 billion. It was shut to external investors in 2011 and became a family office to manage Soros’ fortune, led by CIO Bessent.

Next month Chief Investment Officer will publish an in-depth investigation into the decline of PIMCO in 2014 and the impact of Gross’ exit. Subscribe now to the magazine or email alerts to receive your copy.