S.Africa pension fund to spend $4 bln on infrastructure

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's Government Employees Pension Fund has earmarked about $4 billion for infrastructure development in Africa's biggest economy, the fund's chairman of the board said on Friday.

The fund, which managed 819 billion rand at the end of March 2010, is now focusing more on energy and clean technology projects, as well those that create jobs, Chairman Arthur Moloto told Reuters.

The fund is managed by South Africa's Public Investment Corporation, which itself has stakes in many of South Africa's largest companies, including mobile-phone operator MTN Group.

"We are re-directing the (Public Investment Corporation) PIC to focus more on infrastructure deals," he said.

"A rough figure of 30 billion rand is available for this," he said.

The fund would consider taking an equity stake in some instances or buying bonds in state-owned companies such as power utility Eskom or Transnet , Moloto said.

"For us what is important is to get a good return on those investments, it's not charity," he added.

South Africa, which faces chronic power shortages and bottle necks at major commodity exporting hubs, plans to spend 1 trillion rand over the next five years to upgrade infrastructure and spur economic growth.

In March, it launched an economic development strategy to harness funds from state institutions and use up to 5 percent of private retirement savings to finance development programmes.