PSP to partner Blue Sky for Australian real assets

Blue Sky Alternative Investments, an Australian listed fund manager, is partnering with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board to deploy capital in the real assets sector in Australia.

“Under the strategic agreement, PSP Investments will work with Blue Sky’s Real Assets team to deploy capital over a multi-year period,” said the firm on a filing at the Australian Stock Exchange.

Blue Sky’s real assets team predominantly works in areas of infrastructure and agricultural investments. Its portfolio includes Australian water assets, agribusiness private equity and agricultural infrastructure under several real assets funds.

The Australian firm described PSP as an institution with a long-term investment horizon, suitable for agricultural-related investment and a dedicated natural resources team. Meanwhile, the partnership agreement remains subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Blue Sky expects that fee-earning AUM at 30 June 2018 will approach the upper-end of previous guidance at between A$4 billion to A$4.5 billion ($3.1 and $3.47 billion; €2.6 and €2.93 billion), as its fee-earning assets under management continue to grow across all four of its asset classes, including private equity, private real estate and hedge funds, in addition to real assets. Its fee-earning AUM stood at A$3.25 billion as of this June.

In January this year, the fund manager secured “a significant investment mandate” with LGIASuper to be deployed across the real assets portfolio. Since inception, the real assets team has achieved investor returns of 15.8 percent per annum, net of fees, as at the end of June 2017, according to its website.