CIP more than doubles investor count with €3.5bn close

Danish investment group Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has reached the €3.5 billion hard-cap on its third fund following commitments from 42 investors.

CI III closed €500 million above its target and is €1.5 billion larger than its predecessor, which garnered investment from 19 LPs.

Nearly all of CI II’s LPs have recommitted, except for Danish philanthropic group Villum Fonden. Australian, Taiwanese, Israeli and Swiss pension and insurance groups are among the new investors, adding to capital from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the UK.

The final close comes about a year after Danish pension funds DIP, PensionDanmark and Lægernes Pension, in addition to Norwegian counterpart KLP, brought the fund to a first close by raising €1.2 billion. PensionDanmark invested €540 million, while the European Investment Bank has provided €101 million.

CI III is targeting investments in regulated and long-term contracted energy infrastructure, including offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, biomass and waste-to-energy, transmission and distribution, in addition to possible deals in the energy storage space, with a focus on greenfield deals in North America, north-west Europe and Asia-Pacific.

According to CIP, CI III has a strong investment pipeline, worth around €3 billion, including ownership or exclusivity rights to more than 15 projects being developed towards financial close.

It targets returns between 8 and 10 percent, although the firm told Infrastructure Investor the two previous funds have delivered above that level, without expanding on the figures.

The fund’s first investment came in May last year with the acquisition of three offshore wind sites under development in Taiwan. It became a partner in the development of the 2GW Star of the South offshore wind project in Australia, set to become the country’s first of its kind. The fund also secured CIP’s first investment in geothermal, becoming the majority shareholder of German developer Deutsche Erdwärme.

Predecessor fund CI II is also continuing its deployment, last week announcing an investment in a 148.4MW wind farm in Texas. CIP said 60 percent of the capital has been drawn for CI II so far, with the remainder expected to be drawn over the next couple of years.