A multibillion-dollar global investment manager backed by some of Australia’s largest pension funds will be leading a delegation to the Canada Investment Summit this fall, aiming to pour as much as $10 billion into Canadian infrastructure over the next decade if conditions are right. IFM Investors Pty Ltd. (IFM), which specializes in infrastructure and manages more than $242 billion on behalf of institutional investors, including AustralianSuper and the Australian Retirement Trust, confirmed a delegation will attend the summit to be hosted by the federal government in Toronto on Sept. 14 and 15. “IFM is coordinating the participation of the Australian Super Funds to the summit,” Gian-Carlo Peressutti, executive director of public affairs at the global asset manager, said in a statement. Prime Minister Mark Carney met directly with some of Australia’s largest pensions when he travelled to the country in March as part of a wider trip to strengthen trade and alliances with middle powers. At the same time, the Australian institutional investors signed a sweeping cooperation agreement with nine Canadian pensions, including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ( CPPIB ) and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), which then partnered with the federal government to host the investment summit. Since then, senior IFM executives have said Australian funds are anxious to beef up an “underweight” investment position in Canada, while echoing Canadian pensions in decrying a long-standing lack of opportunities to invest in the kind of large-scale infrastructure assets they seek globally. They have also cited regulatory “frictions” they hope the Carney government and the provinces will address. With the first-of-its-kind summit in September, Carney has promised to convene the world’s largest investors, including top CEOs, entrepreneurs and prominent global business leaders, to attract new investment that advances Canada’s nation-building projects in areas such as mining, energy and security while creating jobs and boosting the economy. His government has pledged to “catalyze” $1 trillion in total investment in Canada over the next five years from public, private and institutional partners. In his first budget last November, his government announced $280-billion worth of capital investments and incentives intended to generate additional investment, including $315 billion in infrastructure alone. The budget also announced that airport privatization was under consideration, a tantalizing prospect for pension funds that was bolstered by the government’s spring 2026 pledge to create a $25-billion sovereign wealth fund that will be fuelled in part by “asset recycling,” or selling established cash-generating government-owned assets, such as airports, and using the proceeds to pay for priority infrastructure projects. During Carney’s visit to Australia in the spring, Kyle Mangini, IFM’s global head of infrastructure, said in a statement that the asset manager was prepared to invest up to $10 billion in Canadian assets over the next 10 years under the “right policy settings.” He also said in the Financial Review on March 4 that Canadian airports meet the size and scale of assets sought, along with toll roads, should they become available, and infrastructure for critical minerals projects such as rail links and power networks. IFM has made a couple of investments in Canada in recent years, both in partnership with Canadian institutional investors: Enwave Energy Corp. was acquired in 2021 with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and it also took a 37.5 per cent stake in 2018 in Vancouver-based GCT Global Container Terminals, which operates out of West Coast ports and is jointly owned by Teachers’ and British Columbia Investment Management Corp. IFM opened its first Canadian office last December in Toronto after Carney’s April election victory on a platform of “build baby build” fast-tracked projects and infrastructure investment. In the Financial Review article, IFM chair Cath Bowtell said Australian pension funds have struggled to find more opportunities to invest in Canada and are eager to work with Canadian governments at the federal and regional levels to eliminate regulatory frictions. She added that policy reform and faster planning approvals could create more opportunities. “It’s a jurisdiction that we would like to invest more in,” she said. “As they look to private capital, we really want to be at the front of the queue.” Carney’s government likely hopes others will think similarly. During his trip to Saudi Arabia this month, the first by a Canadian leader in more than a quarter-century, the prime minister told reporters that the Public Investment Fund, the Middle Eastern kingdom’s US$900-billion sovereign wealth vehicle, is among the large investors that will be attending the investment summit he’s hosting in September. • Email: bshecter@nationalpost.com
Carney investment summit attracts global asset manager backed by Australian super pensions
