In a statement, Perpetual announced that two Canadian pension funds for which it provides trustee services – OP Trust and Borealis – have set up Sydney offices in the past year and more are expected to follow.
“It’s a really positive sign and shows a strong commitment to further investment in the region,” Perpetual general manager Andrew Cannane said.
“We are seeing a number of pension funds relocating executives to the region and setting up local offices in order to compete for local assets.”
In addition, Mr Cannane highlighted several high-profile transactions involving Canadian funds in the past year, including Caisse de Depot’s purchase of a 27 per cent stake in the Port of Brisbane, CPPIB and Dexus’ privatisation of CPA and OTPP’s purchase of Leighton’s NextGen assets.
Mr Cannane suggested the federal government’s “asset recycling initiative”, which offers state governments a bonus for selling state assets, may be fuelling interest from overseas.
“There has been a really positive response to the government’s recycling policy, which is encouraging state governments to sell current assets to pay for new infrastructure,” he said.
“There is a good pipeline of Australian infrastructure assets up for sale in the year ahead, such as Port of Melbourne, the NSW and QLD poles and wires, Port of Gladstone, Port of Townsville and BG Pipelines.
“However, we are expecting fierce competition for these assets which may make Australia a relatively expensive place to invest and result in returns being bid down.”
