* Fund may hedge currency risk on investments -CIO
* Remains committed to long-term investments in Britain
* CIO says competition for assets "unprecedented"
* Fund achieved 13 percent return on investments in 2015
(Recasts, adds chief investment officer's comments)
By Matt Scuffham
TORONTO, March 30 (Reuters) - The Ontario Teachers' Pension
Plan, one of the biggest investors in British infrastructure,
said it is assessing daily the risk that Britain will leave the
European Union and is considering hedging the currency risk on
its investments.
Ontario Teachers', Canada's third-largest public pension
plan, led a consortium of investors that purchased London City
Airport for about 2 billion pounds ($2.9 billion) last month. It
also owns Britain's High Speed One Channel Tunnel railway link
and its National Lottery operator.
Bjarne Graven Larsen, the pension plan's chief investment
officer, said it remained committed to investing in Britain in
the long-term regardless of the outcome of the June 23 "Brexit"
referendum, but has concerns over the short-term currency risk.
Sterling has fallen by nearly 10 percent against the
Canadian dollar since the referendum was announced in February.
"It's a risk and we have to try and figure out how that risk
will play out. We have people looking at it on a daily basis,
but it's not something that will make us stop investing in the
UK long term," Larsen told reporters on Wednesday.
Reuters reported earlier this month that some of Canada's
top pension funds were holding back on deals until after the
British vote.
Ontario Teachers', which administers pensions for 316,000
retired and working teachers in Canada's most populous province,
on Wednesday reported a 13 percent investment return for 2015.
That compared with an 11.8 percent return in 2014.
The pension plan said its net assets grew to a record
C$171.4 billion at the end of 2015 from C$154.5 billion a year
earlier.
Ontario Teachers' pioneered a move by Canadian pension funds
to invest directly in private companies, infrastructure and real
estate internationally as an alternative to Canadian equities
and government bonds.
Larsen, however, said it was becoming harder to find assets
for sale at the right prices because of "unprecedented global
competition" and emphasised the need to add value through the
management of assets.
"We are continuing to look at investments where we can hold
assets for a long time and invest along the way to add value, so
even if it turns out we paid a price that was a little bit too
high on a one-year perspective, it might be a very good
investment on a two-, three-, five- or 10-year perspective," he
said.
($1 = 0.6954 pounds)
(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Paul Simao)