$41m for public-private fund

An infrastructure fund designed to invest in public-private partnerships has raised $41 million.

Craigs Investment Partners, which advised on the offering, said the money was raised from about 750 investors including private investors, community groups, charitable trusts, Maori trusts and Craigs itself.

The New Zealand Social Infrastructure Fund (NZSIF) will invest in Morrison & Co's Public Infrastructure Partners (PIP) Fund, which has been established to invest in partnerships to deliver social infrastructure assets such as schools and hospitals.

The PIP Fund has the support of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which has committed $100 million.

NZSIF is the first chance retail investors have had to get a stake in public-private partnerships.

The Government is pursuing a public-private partnership to build a new 1000-bed prison at Wiri.

NZSIF's board said it was pleased with the raising and the widespread investor support.

The amount raised was the largest successful equity raising in New Zealand this year that was available to the investing public, NZSIF said.

Morrison is in discussions with several large investors to increase the committed capital of the PIP Fund to about $160 million.

PIP managing director Peter Coman said yesterday: "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 NZSIF offer opened on March 17 and closed on Friday.

Fifty million shares at an issue price of $1 each were available.

There was a provision to issue up to a further 75 million shares at $1 a share in oversubscription.

The fund is continuing its institutional capital raising process until October.