Kiwi PIP Fund in third deal

Morrison & Co’s Public Infrastructure Partners Fund (PIP Fund), a vehicle created to invest on behalf of New Zealand institutional investors, has completed its third deal, the PIP Fund announced last week. 

The deal will see the fund invest in a A$20 million (€15 million; $19 million), 30-year scheme to provide accommodation for health workers at Bendigo Hospital, in Victoria, Australia. Public body Bendigo Health is the counterparty to the deal, which the PIP Fund says meets its “investment criteria [of] long-term, low-risk government backed cashflows. The lease structure provides for annual inflation indexation.” 

Separately, Bendigo Health is currently procuring an A$600 million public-private partnership (PPP) to develop a new modern hospital. The residential accommodation scheme will house hospital short tenure staff and visiting professionals. 

For the PIP Fund, the accommodation project marks its third deal, following 2012’s investment in New Zealand’s first PPP transaction – the Hobsonville Schools project. In addition, the PIP Fund owns a 50 percent stake in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre PPP and is one of the shortlisted bidders for the $848 million Transmission Gully highway PPP. 

Launched in 2009, the PIP Fund was created to allow New Zealand investors – like the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, New Zealand Social Infrastructure Fund, and a number of local community trusts – to invest in infrastructure assets, mainly New Zealand ones.