It is understood that QIC and VFMC have made combined commitments of $US124.5 million to the Californian-based Energy Investors Funds’ United States Power Fund III.

For QIC the investment forms part of its infrastructure portfolio, although infrastructure manager Ross Israel was reluctant to talk about specific investments, and said it was premature to talk about the composition of the portfolio. “It is no secret that we have an infrastructure business and are looking onshore and offshore, but at this juncture in the portfolio we are not prepared to disclose where we are making investments,” he said. The fund, which closed at $US1.35 billion, will target mid-sized investments in US generation and transmission assets in development, under construction and in operation. Founded in 1987, Energy Investors Funds was the first private equity funds manager to target the electric power industry with a focus on US electric generating assets, transmission assets and other related electric power assets. The fund, which had a minimum investment of $10 million, had a target return of 20 per cent net pre-tax IRR.