Morrison & Co PIP Limited and Craigs Investment Partners Limited are pleased to announce the successful close last Friday of the initial public offer (IPO) of shares by the New Zealand Social Infrastructure Fund Limited (NZSIF).
The capital raising closed with $41 million of committed capital from approximately 750 investors including private investors, community groups, charitable trusts, Maori trust organisations and Craigs Investment Partners itself.
NZSIF will invest as a Limited Partner in the Public Infrastructure Partners Limited Partnership (the PIP Fund), an institutional fund established to invest in public-private partnerships (PPPs) that deliver social infrastructure assets (such as schools, hospitals and local government facilities) to the community.
The NZSIF board is pleased with the outcome and the widespread investor support shown during challenging market conditions both globally and locally over the last two months. The amount raised represents the largest successful equity raising in New Zealand this year available to the investing public.
“The level of support from investors for NZSIF was pleasing, particularly with markets going through an unsettled period in recent weeks. It required investors to take a long term view and social infrastructure as an asset class is very well suited to that. It should also be noted that this is the first, and possibly only opportunity New Zealand retail investors have to invest in this new asset class,” said Neil Craig, Executive Chairman of Craigs Investment Partners and director of NZSIF.
In addition to the $41 million of committed capital raised for NZSIF, Morrison & Co is currently in discussions with several large investors and expects these to lift the total capital committed to the PIP Fund to date to approximately $160 million.
“We are delighted to have such a broad group of investors participating in the PIP Fund via NZSIF,” said Peter Coman, Managing Director of the Morrison & Co PIP Fund. “With the combination of retail and institutional commitments approaching $160 million, we are well on the way to our overall target of raising over $200 million for the PIP Fund.”
The PIP Fund is continuing its institutional capital raising process with final close of the institutional fund in October 2010.