Brookfield on GIP’s heels with $6.2bn raised

Toronto’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) disclosed in a regulatory filing yesterday that it has raised $6.23 billion for its second infrastructure offering – Brookfield Infrastructure Fund II (BIF II). 

The filing – with the US’ Securities and Exchange Commission – does not disclose whether the $6.23 billion amounts to a final close. BAM could not be reached for comment before going to press. 

In an end of March report from pension consultant The Townsend Group – which recommended BIF II as an investment to the New Mexico State Investment Council, a pension fund – Brookfield’s new vehicle was said to be targeting $5 billion. 

The consultant said Fund II would invest 35 percent of funds raised in transportation, 35 percent in renewable energy and the remainder in energy infrastructure, spending between $200 million and $500 million per investment. It added the vehicle would allocate 40 percent of its portfolio to North America, 25 percent to Europe, 20 percent to South America and 15 percent to Australia and New Zealand. 

In addition to the New Mexico Investment Council, which ended up committing $100 million to BIF II, the fund received an equal-sized cheque from the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, another US pension. 

Assuming the $6.23 billion raised by BIF II does not amount to a final close, BIF II could yet challenge Global Infrastructure Partners’ (GIP) second infrastructure fund for the title of largest fund in the history of the asset class. GIP II closed last year on $8.25 billion beating the $6.5 billion raised by Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners’ first fund to become infrastructure’s biggest vehicle.  

BAM, a $150 billion asset manager, has a $33 billion-plus infrastructure investment business.