The Caisse in A$32m Plenary deal

The pension has invested over A$200m as part of its joint venture with Plenary Group.

Canada’s Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (the Caisse) has invested A$32 million (€25.6 million;$33 million) in Melbourne’s Centre for AgriBioscience as part of its joint venture with Australian developer Plenary Group. 

“This recent investment by the Caisse brings their total investment in Plenary Group projects to over A$200 million,” Paul Oppenheim, Plenary Group’s managing director, said in a statement. Over the course of 2012, the $176 billion Canadian pension invested in a cancer research centre, a hospital, court facilities and the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre – all part of Plenary’s portfolio. 

Melbourne’s Centre for AgriBioscience is a 25-year design, build, finance and operate contract taking in research laboratories, greenhouses and offices to be used by more than 400 researchers to help support the state of Victoria’s A$12 billion agricultural sector. 

The Caisse and Plenary announced a strategic partnership early last year that would allow the Canadian pension to make direct investments in Australian public-private partnerships (PPP) first developed by Plenary. Initially, the Caisse committed A$139.2 million to Plenary to fund the acquisition of stakes in five operational PPPs in Australia. 

The Canadian pension has over $6 billion invested in infrastructure, almost all of it through direct investments.