Renewable

December 15 (Renewables Now) - Italian asset manager F2i SGR said Wednesday its Third Fund has raised EUR 3.14 billion (USD 3.7bn) in its first closing, and it is expected to reach its limit of EUR 3.3 billion early next year.

The 12-year Third Fund has an infrastructure portfolio with assets in renewable energy, airports, natural gas networks and integrated water operators. It inherited the assets of F2i’s First Fund through a merger.

“The goal was to raise new capital to continue to develop the sizeable infrastructure holdings, both in Italy and abroad, put together to date by F2i’s First Fund, which had drawn on all of its commitments,” explains Renato Ravanelli, CEO of F2i, also known as Fondi italiani per le infrastrutture. For the First Fund the value created on the total capital of EUR 1.823 billion drawn from shareholders was enough to fetch a cumulative annual return of EUR 3.34 billion.

A large number of First Fund investors decided to reinvest in the Third Fund, bringing about EUR 1.74 billion. The Italian investors in the fund include banking foundations, financial institutions and pension funds. A further EUR 1.4 billion were new commitments from Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and other foreign investors.

Capstone Partners acts as global placement agent for the fundraising with new international investors. BNP Paribas and Mediobanca have been appointed financial advisors, and Chiomenti and Cleary Gottlieb are legal advisers.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.18)