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Global institutional investment manager IFM Investors is mulling over the idea of purchasing political risk insurance – a policy it has never had to take out for its assets in the UK – amid the prospect of a British government headed by the Labour Party.
The Australian firm, whose focus includes infrastructure, has shareholdings in the likes of Anglian Water, Arqiva Limited, M6toll, and Manchester Airports Group. With Labour offering up a series of renationalisation plans, trouble could be in the offing for IFM Investors.
“We’ve increasingly looked at whether we insure for those risks,” The Sunday Times quoted IFM Investors chief executive Brett Himbury – who referred to threats including regulatory limbo – as saying. “Political risk insurance is something investors around the world are looking at more.”
In its Manifesto, the Labour Party cites underinvestment in infrastructure.
“Our country and its people have been held back by a lack of investment in the backbone of a modern economy – the infrastructure of transport, communications, and energy systems,” reads the Manifesto. “And when investment has happened, it has been too concentrated in too few places.
“Labour will make different choices. We will take advantage of near-record low-interest rates to create a National Transformation Fund that will invest £250 billion over 10 years in upgrading our economy.”
