(1 April 2025 – United Kingdom) The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) will commit to investing ten percent of its assets in British infrastructure and scale-up companies if the government broadens its remit to allow it to absorb smaller schemes.
Set up two decades ago to protect defined benefit (DB) scheme members of failed companies, the PPF is seeking to be allowed to consolidate the UK’s sprawling DB sector but requires ministerial approval to expand.
The PPF currently holds £2.5 billion in British infrastructure and scale-up businesses, including the Thames Tideway sewer, property regeneration company Harworth Group, and Peel Ports, the second-largest port company in the UK.
The Mercer UK Private Equity Review found that pension schemes remain essential capital sources for private equity (PE), especially those managing assets above £10 billion. To unlock greater pension fund investment, however, PE firms must prioritise educating trustees on PE’s portfolio benefits.
“We’ve committed that we think we can get ten percent of its assets into UK productive finance, which is the juicy stuff the government wants if we ran a public sector consolidator operating at scale” PPF CEO Michelle Ostermann commented to Mary McDougall for the Financial Times.