F2i has held the first closing of its third fund with €3.14 billion ($3.7 billion) in capital commitments.
The amount is expected to increase in early 2018 to €3.3 billion ($3.9 billion), the maximum amount allowed under the fund’s own rules.
The fund, with a 12-year duration, inherited (through a merger) the assets of F2i’s First Fund.
The merger allows the Third Fund to begin its activities with an established infrastructure portfolio covering airports, natural-gas networks, renewable energy, solar and integrated water operators.
Bank foundations and pension funds, which have invested in F2i since its inception, were among the largest supporters from the existing Italian investor base. Overall, Italian and international institutions who were already invested in the First Fund, have decided to reinvest in the Third Fund an amount equal to approximately €1.74 billion ($2.05 billion). Additional resources were provided by a new fundraise, amounting to €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion), from leading international investors, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers and insurance companies.
“We planned and successfully executed a very ambitious project. The goal was to raise new capital to continue the development, both in Italy and abroad, of the sizeable infrastructural holdings put together to date by F2i’s First Fund, which had drawn on all of its commitments,” said Renato Ravanelli, CEO of F2i.