Potholes and pension funds

As reported in the Financial Times (June 4, 2012) by Daniel Schafer - - Pension funds back away from infrastructure investment.  This is not a good sign - - highlights from the article:

• Pension funds globally are pulling back from infrastructure investments is a worrying trend for cash-strapped western governments.
• In the past five years until the end of April 2012, pension funds around the world have reduced their allocation to infrastructure projects by 8% or roughly $49.46 billion.
• This has hit the UK particularly hard - - pension funds were seen as a source of funds for road and rail improvements.
• Investment banks, which dominated the sector in the past decade, have been overtaken by independent fund managers for the first time.
• The research shows the emergence of a new breed of independent infrastructure investor, such as Arcus and SteelRiver.
• A couple of exceptions - - the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the China Investment Corporation are pushing into the infrastructure sector.

A good source of information is the Infrastructure Investor - -

http://www.infrastructureinvestor.com/