WSIB commits up to $150m to Fortress infra fund

The Washington State Investment Board has approved an allocation of up to $150m in the Fortress Worldwide Transportation and Infrastructure Investors fund.

The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) has approved an investment commitment of up to $100 million initially, and up to another $50 million for follow-on investments, in the Fortress Worldwide Transportation and Infrastructure Investors fund, a WSIB spokesperson confirmed.

The fund, which alternative asset manager Fortress Investment Group launched in 2011, is an unlisted infrastructure vehicle targeting transportation assets across the globe.

WSIB has invested in each of Fortress’s five previous private equity funds as well as a co-investment vehicle, the pension fund’s institutional relations director Liz Mendizabal told Infrastructure Investor in an e-mailed response.

Infrastructure falls under WSIB’s tangible assets portfolio, an asset class that was established in 2007 and implemented in 2008.

“The tangible assets portfolio invests in non-financial assets having physical substance that are used in the production or supply of goods and services,” Mendizabal explained.

It primarily targets investments in five sectors: agriculture, commodities, infrastructure, natural resource rights (such as mining), and timber, according to the WSIB site.

As of December 31, 2013, WSIB had $98.1 billion in assets under management with $1.05 billion allocated to tangible assets.

The pension fund has not set a target allocation for infrastructure specifically.

WSIB manages 17 state retirement and public funds on behalf of teachers, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and judges. In addition to this, WSIB manages 16 funds that provide benefit and support to industrial insurance, colleges and universities, and developmental disability programmes.