Orion Energy Partners, a private equity firm providing creative capital solutions to middle-market energy infrastructure businesses, has closed Orion Energy Credit Opportunities Fund II. The fund was oversubscribed with commitments totaling $816 million, exceeding the target fund size of $750 million.
Capital commitments to Orion Energy’s new fund represent major global investor markets, with nearly 50 percent from the United States, approximately 20 percent from the United Kingdom and Europe, and the remainder from Australia. The investor base comprises multiple state and corporate pension plans, endowments and foundations, asset managers, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. Together with dedicated co-investment capital of $200 million, Orion Energy now manages in excess of $1 billion of investable capital for its specialized investment strategy across the North American energy infrastructure sector.
“Since we kicked off Fund II in early 2016, we have successfully sourced and executed on a number of energy sector investments,” said Nazar Massouh, CEO, co-founder and managing partner at Orion Energy.
Orion Energy focuses on partnering with North American and select international middle market energy companies. Deploying this strategy, the firm has been selected as an exclusive long-term capital partner on 10 transactions to date, six of which have been publicly announced, representing more than $500 million in capital investments or approximately 60 percent of Fund II.
“With final close of Fund II now behind us, we are eager to devote 100 percent of our resources to harvesting the robust pipeline of transactions we have in front of us,” said Gerrit Nicholas, co-founder and managing partner. “The middle market in energy has been starving for a partner who can provide creative credit solutions to stable and growing businesses, most of whom have faced extremely limited options for debt financing for several years. Orion Energy is filling that void by creating capital partnerships across multiple energy subsectors, including downstream, midstream, conventional electric power, asset-heavy energy services, renewables, energy storage and other segments of the energy value chain.”
