Infracapital has acquired U.K. rail freight operator GB Railfreight Ltd. from EQT Infrastructure on behalf of its Infracapital Partners III Fund.
In May 2018, Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Investments, held a final close for the fund with £1.85 billion ($2.3 billion) in capital commitments, making it the firm’s largest fund to date.
The fund looks to invest in and actively manage assets across Europe, predominantly in the transport, utilities, renewable energy and telecoms sectors.
The deal marks the fund’s fourth investment.
GB Railfreight is the third-largest rail freight operator in the United Kingdom, transporting 23 percent of the country’s rail cargo and operating more than 1,000 trainloads per week.
Its fleet comprises of more than 150 locomotives and almost 1,500 wagons, which transport goods for a wide range of customers, including Network Rail, MSC, Bombardier, Drax, Tarmac and Aggregate Industries. The company has a presence in several larger deep-sea ports in the United Kingdom, including Felixstowe, Southampton and London Gateway.
“GB Railfreight perfectly fits our mission of investing in essential infrastructure assets and businesses which are key to economic growth,” said Thomas Crawley, transaction director at Infracapital. “The company’s high-quality, modern fleet is ideally-positioned to capitalize on its strong position and further increase its share of the diverse, resilient and growing U.K. rail freight market.”
The transaction is expected to close by mid-October.
Infracapital manages £4.5 billion ($5.6 billion) of unlisted equity in infrastructure companies on behalf of institutional clients, including the life funds of M&G Prudential, one of Europe’s largest investors in private assets.
