Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has raised around Euro 1.5 billion in commitments for a new renewable energy fund. The fund, Copenhagen Infrastructure IV, is expected to make a capital commitment of Euro 5 billion to Euro 7 billion and could invest up to Euro 15 billion in the renewable energy space.
So far, Denmark’s PensionDanmark and AP Pension have committed Euro 500 million and Euro 335 million, respectively, to Copenhagen Infrastructure IV, and Norwegian municipal pension fund KLP has provided an undisclosed amount. Other investors in the first close include pension and life companies and family offices. Several other institutional investors are in the process of making capital commitments to the fund, including those from the Nordic countries, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Israel, North America, Asia and Australia, CIP said. The fund is expected to be fully subscribed over the next nine-12 months.
According to sources, a third of the funds will be invested in offshore wind farms, one third in onshore wind and solar and the final third in technologies like biomass, waste-to-energy, transmission and storage solutions. Geographically, the investments will be split roughly between North America, Western Europe, and developed Asia-Pacific markets.
“We are honoured by the continued high level of investor confidence in CIP’s approach to energy infrastructure investment, and we look forward to continuing to create value for our investors, project owners and communities through the fund’s investments. The market is favourable for investments in renewable energy infrastructure, and the fund and CIP are well positioned against the attractive opportunities in this market, not least through an attractive investment pipeline and a high level of execution security provided by an approximately 110-man CIP team of experienced industrial specialists,” said CIP managing partner Jakob Baruel Poulsen in a press release.
REGLOBAL’s take: CIP’s move to launch what could be termed as the world’s largest green energy fund comes at a time when the renewable energy sector worldwide is grappling with issues like supply chain bottlenecks, construction freezes and financing setbacks. This can be taken to indicate that investors have high confidence in the potential of renewable portfolios to produce higher investment returns despite aforementioned bottlenecks.
