The PM’s big sell gets ready to ramp up

Saturday, 8 March 2025

Read the full list of organisations attending below.

When the Government’s infrastructure investment summit kicks off next week, titans of investment finance controlling some $6 trillion worth of investment capital will be sitting in the room.

The Mike McRoberts MC’d summit, which is a centrepiece of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s renewed growth and foreign investment push, will feature hedge funds, regional and global banks, global pensions funds, infrastructure and construction giants.

The summit has been put together primarily by the Treasury, while the minister in charge of pulling it all together is Chris Bishop. Luxon is “hosting” the event.

While the Government has been keen to hose down suggestions that it might be a deal-fest, it is concentrating on glad-handing as many capital allocators as possible, doing the big sell on New Zealand’s investment pipeline over the coming years.

The goal is simple: to get foreign cash into the country to help pay for New Zealand’s big infrastructure projects. And the scope of sectors is wide.

“The upcoming summit is all about attracting investment into the infrastructure projects New Zealanders need to get ahead, so that we can grow our economy, create opportunities for New Zealanders, and raise the standard of living for Kiwi families,” Infrastructure Minister Bishop said.

“We’re going to show our international visitors in no uncertain terms that New Zealand is open for business, and we are a country worth investing in,” he said.

Among the biggest investors attending are the Canadian giant Brookfield Asset Management, the BlackRock-owned Global Investment Partners, Singapore-based Keppel Ltd, abrdn (Aberdeen Investments) as well as New Zealand’s Morrison.

There are a number of other big funds based in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere attending.

In the Government’s language there is a focus on “investible opportunities”, otherwise known as potential deals.

The Government is also keen to showcase projects that might be coming on to market soon and will be expecting its ministers to attend.

Government ministers speaking ‒ which includes the prime minister, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, Bishop, Education and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Minister for Regulation David Seymour ‒ will be expected to spend at least the entire day at the conference on the day that they are speaking.

Ministers, who have notoriously full diaries, most often turn up to conferences, speak and leave.

The whole summit is effectively being set up as a series of speeches and panel discussions. The panels are basically the only part moderated by outsiders, who include Luxon’s former chair at Air New Zealand, Dame Therese Walsh, and one of his National Party predecessors, Auckland Business Chamber’s Simon Bridges.

It appears to mostly feature Government ministers talking about what is happening in their areas, what the Government is doing to make it easier to invest and what the specific upcoming opportunities are.

The range is broad, with a series of infrastructure “showcases”, in areas as broad as transport, health, corrections, justice and education.

So that could potentially mean schools universities, hospitals, prisons and justice property.

There will also be panels on renewable and clean energy as well as technology which will feature Judith Collins

Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds will also be speaking on infrastructure as the Government seeks to impress upon investors that, despite differences in political stripes, that investment is welcome in New Zealand. She will give a speech titled “Investing in New Zealanders”.

There will be a panel on Iwi investment, moderated by Tama Potaka.

There will also be a series of invitation-only ‘delegate roundtables’ conducted throughout the two days

All the big New Zealand banks will be attending along with Australian investment giant Macquarie Bank, colloquially known in Australia as the “Millionaires’ Factory”, and a range of iwi groups and their investment arms including Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngati Porou.

There will be reps from sovereign wealth funds from Malaysia and Korea. Canadian Pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) will also be in attendance.

Then there are the big corporate lawyers including MinterEllisonRuddWatts and Bell Gully, as well as corporate advisory types such as Jarden and Mercer, and global consultancy giants such as KPMG.

There will also be plenty of global infrastructure companies including CIMIC, CPB, Acciona, Downer, Hyundai Engineering and Fletchers.

“The financial companies and institutions attending the summit manage assets and funds worth around $6 trillion of capital and they are headquartered across the world. They include pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and major banks. We also have delegates from the construction and engineering sectors,” Bishop said.

“New Zealanders can be proud that some of the world’s biggest investment and infrastructure entities are keen to learn about the opportunities New Zealand has to offer,” he said.

What organisations are attending?

Read the full list, by alphabetically and by type of organisation attending.

Investors

abrdn (Aberdeen Investments)

Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)

Amber Infrastructure Group

Brookfield Asset Management

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners

Dexus

FirstCape

Global Infrastructure Partners

Igneo Infrastructure Partners

InfraRed Capital Partners Ltd

Invesis

Kahungunu Asset Holding Company

Keppel Ltd

Milford Asset Management Ltd

Morrison

Nāti Growth Ltd

Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa

Pacific Partnerships

Paenga Kupenga

Plenary Group Holdings Pty Ltd

Tainui Group Holdings

Taranaki Mounga

Tauhara Number 2 Trust

Te Aratura, Waikato

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu

Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira

Tū Mai Rā Trust & Investments

Tupu Tonu Ngapuhi Investment Fund

Construction

ACCIONA

CIMIC Group

Civil Contractors NZ

CPB Contractors

Downer

Fletcher Building

Ghella Ltd

GS Engineering & Construction

HEB Construction

Hyundai Engineering & Construction

Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB)

McConnell Dowell

Obayashi Corporation

Samsung C&T

Transurban

WeBuild

Developer/Operators

Capella Capital

Serco Asia Pacific

VINCI Highways

Engineering Services

ARUP Group Limited

Beca Group

Engineering Professional Services

Aurecon

Frequency NZ Ltd

Height Project Management

Jacobs New Zealand

Rider Levett Bucknall

Rimkus New Zealand

Stantec New Zealand

Tonkin + Taylor

Financial Services

ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited

ASB Bank

Bank of China (NZ)

Bank of New Zealand

CaixaBank

China Construction Bank

Citi Bank

Commonwealth Bank

Craigs Investment Partners

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) New Zealand

ING Bank Australia

Korea Development Bank

Macquarie Group

Mafic Partners

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Co.

National Australia Bank

Royal Bank Canada

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking (Australia)

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC)

Westpac NZ

Pension/Superannuation

Australian Retirement Trust

Aware Super

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)

NZ Super Fund

OMERS Infrastructure

Simplicity

Professional services

ACE NZ

Auckland Business Chamber

BDO New Zealand

Bell Gully

Buddle Findlay

Dentons

GHD

Infrastructure NZ

KPMG

Mercer NZ

MinterEllisonRuddWatts

Russell McVeagh

Simpson Grierson

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Khazanah Nasional Berhad

Korea Investment Corporation

Queensland Investment Corporation