DIF appoints new partner

DIF has promoted Paul Huebener to partner shortly after closing a series of transactions around Europe and North America.
 
Huebener has been the Amsterdam-based asset manager's head of Americas since 2012, when the firm established an outpost in Toronto, its first on the continent. He has since overseen a total of eight PPP and renewable energy projects in the region.
 
Huebener was previously at Macquarie Capital, the principal investment arm of Macquarie Group, and US boutique investment bank Fieldstone Private Capital.
 
His promotion comes at a busy time for the firm, which is in the process of investing its Fund IV, closed last year on its €1.15 billion hard-cap.
 
Only last month, DIF agreed to acquire large stakes in Norte Litoral and Via do Infante, two road PPPs in Portugal, and t eamed up with EDF Invest to buy the whole of German gas grid Thyssengas for about 1.3 times its regulated asset base. It also reached financial close on the €471 million refinancing of the project company behind the A1/A6 Diemen – Almere Havendreef road.
 
This followed a month that saw the firm close a hospital P3 in Canada , clinch the financing of the Dutch N18 road PPP, exit six French wind projects and be selected as preferred bidder for an Austrian radiology facilities PPP.
 
In January, the firm also acquired the 20 MW Royalla solar photovoltaic power plant in the Australian Capital Territory , its first investment Down Under.