Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners eyes €1bn for first debt fund, bags €320m of seed capital

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is launching its first debt fund – CI Green Credit Fund I – with €320m in seed capital. Marketing of the fund to institutional investors has been kicked-off and the fund will be targeting a fund size of €1bn.

The fund will provide private project finance debt with subordinated risk characteristics supporting renewable energy projects globally. Focus will be on green- and brownfield projects in offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, biomass, storage and transmission assets, and the geographic focus of the fund will be Europe, North America and selective jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region. The fund’s main focus will be on direct investments, but it also has ability to do risk sharing transactions. For risk sharing transactions, CIP has partnered with Whitecroft Capital Management, a leading specialist manager dedicated to bank capital opportunities.

“The Green Credit Fund is a significant step in our continued expansion as it broadens CIP’s offering to also include infrastructure debt. This is an important and necessary funding component of the global energy transition. We believe that our new credit fund can add value both to sponsors and senior lenders, by leveraging CIPs expertise and track record. The fund will fill an important role alongside other capital providers to support the energy transition.” says Jakob Baruël Poulsen, Managing Partner in CIP.

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The fund provides investors access to an asset class with a substantial growth momentum and an attractive risk/return profile facilitated by CIP’s market-leading sector expertise and execution capability.

CI GCF I will be co-headed by Partner Nicholas Blach-Petersen and Partner Jakob Groot. A number of senior hires have already been made in Copenhagen, London and New York, and the fund is expecting to make its first investments in the coming months.

CIP is one of the global market leaders in greenfield renewable infrastructure investments which was recently evidenced by its successful fundraise of €7bn for its flagship strategy “Copenhagen Infrastructure IV”. CIP is therefore uniquely positioned to leverage existing know-how in providing debt solutions that require deep industrial expertise, and a strong understanding of project risk in the renewable energy markets. CI GCF I will apply the same proven de- risking approach as CIP’s existing funds and combine this with the newly hired team of project finance and credit specialists.

Seed capital to CI GCF I is provided by a small group of leading investors including a large Danish Pension fund and Singlife with Aviva, a Singapore-based financial services company. Kim Rosenkilde, Group Chief Investment Officer of Singlife with Aviva, said, “We are pleased to be a founding investor in the CI Green Credit Fund I, as we focus on making significant impact through our investments.”

Following the seed close of CI GCF I, CIP has nine funds under management with total commitments of around €16bn. The CI GCF I fund will be marketed to existing and new investors from across the Nordics, Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia and is expected to reach final close within 12 months.

Source: Press Release

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