GSIS sells stake in AirTrunk, raises P15.8 billion for pension fund

MANILA, Philippines — The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has received $272 million (P15.8 billion) from the Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund 2 (MAIF2), following the successful sale of the fund’s stake in AirTrunk, a leading regional data center operator.

In a statement, the GSIS said the latest payout is part of multiple distributions that have enabled GSIS to fully recover its $286.5 million initial investment in MAIF2, managed by Macquarie Asset Management (MAM).

The GSIS told The STAR that the latest payout includes $258.5 million from AirTrunk proceeds and brings the total distributions from MAIF2 to $332.5 million. This exceeds GSIS’s $286.5 million initial investment in the fund, which represents 0.92 percent of its total assets.

The investments have also generated $46 million in net income for GSIS, reinforcing the pension fund’s strategy to achieve sustainable returns. The consistent returns from these investments underline GSIS’s strategy of portfolio diversification and prudent fund management to safeguard the financial well-being of its more than two million members.

“This is good news for GSIS members as the funds are invested to earn solid returns, helping to boost the financial strength of the GSIS and its capacity to cover pension payments of retired civil servants in the future,” the state-run institution said.

GSIS president and general manager Wick Veloso said he sees strong returns from the pension fund’s investments in infrastructure in the Philippines and around the Asian region.

“We have a duty to invest prudently on behalf of our millions of hardworking government employees,” Veloso said. “Our infrastructure investments through MAM’s funds have delivered excellent results, enhancing retirement security while supporting critical infrastructure.”

The GSIS first partnered with MAM in 2012 through the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure, a 10-year closed-end fund supporting domestic infrastructure development.

Building on this relationship, the GSIS committed $286.5 million to MAIF2 in November 2017 and $325 million to MAIF3 in March 2021, according to the 2023 financial statement of the GSIS.

These funds were allocated to high-value infrastructure assets in transportation, communications, utilities, energy and waste management across Asia-Pacific.

GSIS maintains a balanced investment strategy, with 70 percent of its portfolio allocated to low-risk assets for stability, while the remaining portion is deployed in higher-yielding investments such as infrastructure.

This approach enables GSIS to enhance its fund life and generate sufficient liquidity to support pension obligations.