Bill Haughey: ABRDN Infrastructure Head on investing in New Zealand

A push for more infrastructure growth through foreign capital has piqued offshore interest.  

The Government's Investment Summit is in its second day in Auckland.  

More than 100 investors from around the world are attending to hear from ministers about potential projects and partnerships.   

ABRDN Infrastructure Head Bill Haughey told Mike Hosking his firm has the capacity to invest globally, but New Zealand's been relatively quiet in recent years. 

He says New Zealand's a place where the firm can do business if the pipeline is right and the Government's coming forward with the right kind of projects. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So as we sit at the start of the show,
the opening day of this investor face looks a bit promising.
Serious players representing large fortunes looking to invest here and
get this country back in the game. Eberdeen is a
Scottish based infrastructure fund with more than a trilling dollars
worth of assets. The head of Infrastructure Funds, Bill Hoffey,
is in the country and well there's Bill morning, Good morning.
What's your summation of day one?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Very positive. I think quite a few investors came here
with a degree of cautious optimism and the government has
been looking to knock down some of those cautious barriers
and give people an opportunity to have some real promise
to invest and put their people into this country.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I thought the Prime Minister's message that with a shelter
from the storm was a good one. Did it lend
well in your view?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
He did, a number of compelling reasons have been given
as to why now is the right time to come
to New Zealand for those foreign investors and foreign construction
companies and grow their business locally.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Did you get enough out of day one project wise
to be tempted or do you need day two with
more projects. In other words, you need to hear more.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's very much a two part sessions. So they've covered
some high level projects during the first day, but there
are more to come as I understand it today, So
very much looking forward to hearing about some of the
other sectors where they've got some projects in development.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
The Second Harbor crossing is one that we're apparently looking
forward to. Does your company look to specific projects or
types of projects or any projects potentially?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
The Eberdeen Concession Infra team has about eight billion enz
globally under management in PPPs and concession infrastructure projects, so
we're very much targeting those projects which have a public
private partner ship flavor to them, So that's the kind
of projects that we are looking at. We're very much

(02:07):
interested in the Northern Corridor as well as some of
the social accommodation projects which have been signaled to be
coming out from the government.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
How aware, and this has been the great debate in
this country post COVID and post our lockdown for such
a long period of time, and the Prime Minister goes
on about it all the time. How are where are
you guys of New Zealand being open for business? Or
has this been a revelation to you And it's good
to hear from your point of view.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
It's certainly good to hear. From my point of view.
Aberdeen was involved in bidding the previous round of public
private partnerships, which I think last has an investment opportunity,
probably about seven years ago, so it has been very
quiet for the past six seven years. From my perspective,

(02:55):
as a green field investor into this landscape, we obviously
look and have capacity to invest globally and New Zealand
is one of those places where we can do business
if the pipeline that's right and the government is coming
forward with the right kind of projects.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
That was my next question. So you've had three or
four decent projects more come today? Do you need to
see the pipeline which is beyond project number one or
maybe two? You want to see something multi year.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, and certainly that has been signaled during the first day,
and I expect a bit more through the second day
for companies, particularly the design and construction companies and operating
companies to come and put quality people in Australia where
maybe the local skills don't exist. It's probably be more

(03:48):
than just one project in one sector.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Good stuff, Bill good and so I appreciate it very
much and enjoy us down in the country Bill Hoffey,
who's with the Eberdeen he's the head of Infrastructure Funds.
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
Talk set B from six am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio