Fundraising

Golding raises €950m for infra vehicles

The firm closed its main infrastructure vehicle €150m above its target and hit a first close on its co-investment programme.

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German asset manager Golding Capital Partners has raised €956 million following a final and first close on two of its infrastructure vehicles.

The group closed its Golding Infrastructure 2016 fund of funds on its hard-cap of €750 million, surpassing its €600 million target. The additional capital follows a €435 million first close reached in September 2016. Its predecessor, Golding Infrastructure 2013, raised €590 million.

Targeting an IRR of about 8 percent, the fund is an investor in the €4 billion EQT Infrastructure III vehicle, which closed last year, as well as Infracapital’s £1.25 billion ($1.8 billion; €1.4 billion) greenfield fund. Golding saw a 52 percent re-up rate from insurance companies, pension funds, co-operatives and savings banks, many of which came from German-speaking countries, according to Hubertus Theile-Ochel, managing partner of GCP. The vehicle received commitments from more than 60 LPs and is now about 75 percent invested.

A successor fund is set to be launched by GCP in Q2 this year, although the group has not placed a target on this yet.

The firm also reached a €206 million first close on its Golding Infrastructure Co-Investment 2016 programme. The vehicle has already reached 70 percent of its €300 million target and will remain open until the end of this year. It has a targeted IRR of about 10 percent and was described as filling “a real gap in the market”, Theile-Ochel said.

“We offer investors the returns of a direct fund at the same time as much broader diversification,” he added. “That was particularly compelling for investors seeking to supplement their existing infrastructure portfolio with high-yield projects from Europe and North America.”

The co-investment fund was launched by way of a learning curve for the German institutional market, Matthias Reicherter, head of infrastructure at GCP, told Infrastructure Investor. He added that the slightly higher returns are commensurate with investor requirements and the fund is an opportunity for the investor base to grow its knowledge of the asset class. Ticket sizes are set to be between €15 million and €25 million.