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CIP brings in Orsted asset management chief for new MD role

Robert Helms will be responsible for the Danish firm’s New Markets fund, which reached a $700m first close earlier this year.

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Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has hired compatriot Orsted’s head of asset management Robert Helms as a managing director for its recently established New Markets fund.

Helms joins in a newly created role. He brings the total number of investment staff working on CIP New Markets Fund to 10, Niels Holst, partner of the division, told Infrastructure Investor. The team also includes Wolfgang Bischoff, who joined as managing director from his role as head of energy equity in Europe at Siemens Financial Services last year.

Helms has joined CIP after almost five years as Danish wind giant Orsted’s asset management chief, which included responsibility for all of the company’s operational offshore wind assets. Helms spent a decade at Orsted in total.

The CIP New Markets Fund reached a $700 million first close in May following commitments from Nordic investors PensionDanmark, KLP, ATP and Lægernes Pension. It has a $1 billion target and a second close is expected in the coming months, Holst added.

The vehicle is CIP’s first fund to exclude investments in North America and Western Europe, instead focusing on deals for renewable energy projects primarily in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. Holst said the fund’s first deal is expected to be completed early next year.

The firm has already made substantial inroads into the Asian renewable energy market and it was confirmed last year that it will develop 900MW of offshore wind projects, both on its own and with industrial partners.