GI 50: Meet infra’s top institutional investors

Last year, we debuted the Global Investor 30 – our ranking of the asset class’s largest institutional investors. We found then that these institutions had committed $321 billion to infrastructure.

This year, we’ve expanded it to feature the 50 biggest institutional investors. We have done so after conducting primary and secondary research on more than 100 institutions to produce a ranking based on the market value of investors’ private infrastructure investment portfolios, both through third-party managed vehicles and direct investments.

So, what changed as we expanded our pool of participants? The first thing was the amount committed by the 50 largest investors, which stands just shy of $395 billion. However, the lion’s share is concentrated in the top 10: just over $195 billion was committed, or just over 49 percent of the total GI 50. Last year, the top 10 were even weightier, at 57 percent of the GI 30. There are mostly familiar faces in this year’s top 10. The only new entrant is BCI, which has taken the place of fellow Canadian pension PSP Investments, now sitting at number 11.

Whereas last year, an institution would need $3.59 billion to make the ranking, this year’s last-placed entry, the New Jersey Division of Investment, has $2.05 billion allocated to the asset class. On a like-for-like basis, though, this year’s 30th-placed entry, MEAG, has $4.27 billion allocated.