Fundraising round-up

A number of infrastructure funds raised equity in July and August.

AMP Capital has raised more than $300 million from 17 institutional investors from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to complete the first close of the AMP Capital Infrastructure Debt Fund II (IDF II). AMP raised capital from a leading Korean insurance firm and secured a commitment from its first Swiss client. AMP also was helped by its business partner Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp., which marketed the fund to its clients.

IDF II will invest in the subordinated debt of 10 to 15 companies in the water, gas, electricity and transportation sectors located in Europe, North America and Australia.

“We’ve completed the fund’s first investment, securing a £50 million ($77.7 million) subordinated loan to Heathrow Airport,” Andrew Jones, head of infrastructure debt with AMP, said in a statement. “The team is pursuing a strong pipeline and expects to announce further investments shortly.”

IDF II is the follow-up fund to AMP Capital’s first infrastructure debt fund, which closed to new investment in June 2012 with $503 million raised from 30 global institutional investors.

In addition, Hamburg-based Union Investment has completed the second close for its UniInstitutional Infrastruktur SICAV-SIF Erneuerbare Energien infrastructure  fund. The fund has raised nearly €100 million ($133 million) since it was launched in September 2012, and with leverage it can make approximately €350 million ($467 million) of investments.

“Compared to the first subscription phase, we were able to further boost the level of interest among our institutional investors in our first infrastructure fund,” says Christoph Schumacher, a member of the management board at Hamburg-based Union Investment Institutional Property GmbH, which is the funds asset manager.

The fund invests in European energy parks with a focus on onshore wind farms, as well as some photovoltaic investments. In addition to two wind farms in Germany, the fund also has signed an agreement to acquire a wind farm in Ireland, and investments in France and the United Kingdom are scheduled, as well as assets in German locations.

“The expansion of the portfolio is progressing as planned,” says Schumacher. According to Union Investment, “since there is little or no correlation between renewable energy and traditional asset classes, UniInstitutional Infrastruktur SICAV-SIF Erneuerbare Energien allows the risk/return profile of institutional investments to be optimized.”

London-based Glennmont Partners has launched its second clean energy infrastructure fund and has secured €200 million ($267 million) in commitments from new and existing investors for its first close. The 10-year fund is targeting up to €450 million ($600 million) and it will invest in European projects primarily in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Portugal and Italy.

Glennmont was founded in 2013 following a spin-off of BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners where its team had been working together has been working together since 2007. The firm invests in alternative power generation projects focusing on wind, biomass, solar and small-scale hydro. Since 2007, Glennmont Partners — including its years as BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners — has invested more than €1 billion ($1.3 billion) in 14 clean energy infrastructure projects generating in more than 350 MW in total.