Publications

Fundraising - APRIL 1, 2013

DIF holds €800 final close

by Andrea Waitrovich, released 3/28/13

Independent fund manager DIF has held an €800 million ($1.0 billion million) final close for its third infrastructure fund, DIF Infrastructure III.

The fund launched in 2011 with €600 million ($770 million) target with a hard cap of €750 million (4960 million). After its first close in May 2012, the firm increased its fundraising goal to €800 million ($1.0 billion) in order to facilitate the strong demand from existing and new investors. A second close was held in December with an additional €463 million ($593 million) in equity commitments.

After the first close, the majority of the equity commitments were primarily from European investors.

“We have seen a strong commitment by existing European investors with a re-up rate of 70 percent, while most of the new money is also raised with European institutions,” said Wim Blaasse, managing partner of DIF, in a statement. They are all looking for relatively low risk stable yielding assets and solid returns managed by an experienced manager. We are pleased with the investors’ interest in DIF’s activities in the current challenging fundraising environment, in which we ultimately had to turn down some investor demand.”

DIF Infrastructure III has a similar investment strategy to DIF Infrastructure II, which closed in 2010 with €390 million ($500 million),  and will target investments in projects with long-term stable cash flows, principally Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and renewable energy projects. As with its previous funds DIF Infrastructure III will focus on both primary and secondary investment opportunities in Europe and North America.

DIF Infrastructure III started to invest its capital. It is currently a preferred bidder for a number of transactions in various countries in both the PPP and renewable energy space. DIF Infrastructure III closed its first four transactions, three PPP projects and one solar PV portfolio. This includes the Dutch PPP road project A1/A6, a 22.6-megawatt solar PV portfolio in France, the operational Irish toll road M4 and a PPP accommodation project in France.

DIF Infrastructure II is still investing its capital. The fund recently increased its shareholding in Delfluent, a €350 million ($450 million) wastewater treatment plant project in Denmark, from 8 percent to 32.5 percent through the acquisition of the shares of Rabo Project Equity.

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