Investors launch global infra association

Nineteen of some of the world’s largest institutional investors have come together to found the Global Infrastructure Investors Association (GIIA), the London-based non-profit association announced in a statement on Friday.

“Through this new association we are creating an efficient way for the engagement between the private investment community and governments and regulators,” GIIA spokesperson Lonneke Löwik said.

“We want to foster an understanding of the issues involved with private investments in infrastructure and to build strong relationships with policymakers and regulators to ensure that those investments are facilitated and help in meeting the infrastructure needs of economies across the world.”

The need for a representative body is proving particularly important at a time when governments are increasingly turning to the private sector to meet their public infrastructure needs, according to GIIA.

The launch of the association comes less than a year after Paris-based fund manager Meridiam Infrastructure teamed up with a number of large infrastructure investors and multilateral development banks to form the Long-Term Infrastructure Investors Association (LTIIA).

LTIIA, which was launched in August 2014, currently has 12 founding members, including Allianz Global Investors, also a founding member of GIIA.

While at first glance, the two entities may appear to be similar, LTIIA’s main mission is to establish benchmarks, promote best practices in the industry and enable the integration of environment, social and governance aspects. It is closest with the GIIA in also aiming to ensure the infrastructure industry will have representation at relevant forums such as the G20 and B20 and multilateral development bank meetings and workshops.

In that respect, LTIIA’s objective parallels that of GIIA, which states that part of the new association’s role is to “act as the industry’s advocate, engaging directly with governments, supranational bodies and policy makers to develop and maintain supportive and stable regulatory environments and reduce barriers to investment.”

GIIA’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification on the body’s remit, while a spokesperson for LTIIA was unavailable for comment at press time.

In addition to Allianz GI, GIIA’s other founding members are Alinda Capital Partners, Antin Infrastructure Partners, APG Asset Management, Arcus Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Infrastructure, CPP Investment Board, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, EISER Infrastructure Partners, Global Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners, IFC Asset Management Company, IFM Investors, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Prudential/InfraCapital, PSP Investments and 3i Investment.