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Legal & General hires HSBC director following record deal

Will Devenney’s arrival at the UK insurer comes after it agreed to back GIP’s acquisition of the Hornsea One offshore wind farm with $474m.

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 Legal & General Investment Management has hired HSBC’s infrastructure and real estate director Will Devenney to its infrastructure debt team.

LGIM confirmed Devenney has joined the UK insurer in a newly-created role of manager within the team, reporting to head of finance Tom Sumpster.

Devenney’s arrival follows a three-year tenure at HSBC, preceded by a 10-year spell at RBC Capital Markets, bringing more than a decade of experience working on advisory, structuring and underwriting deals across the transportation, utilities and renewables sectors. Devenney spent the final five years at RBC as vice president, then director of infrastructure acquisition and leverage finance.

LGIM said Devenney has joined as part of plans to expand its infrastructure debt team and broaden its investment opportunities, focusing on “yield-enhancing strategies”. LGIM last week provided £370 million ($473.6 million; €414.9 million) financing to support Global Infrastructure Partners’ 50 percent acquisition of the 1.2GW Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm, its largest single renewables investment to date and second largest infrastructure debt provision.

The move came almost exactly a year after LGIM’s first investment in UK offshore wind. This year, the UK insurer has made euro-denominated deals, backing the 3i Infrastructure and DWS-owned airport equipment supplier TCR and terminal operator Terminal Investment Limited, also partially owned by GIP.

The insurance group has invested a total of £1 billion in infrastructure in the past 12 months, bringing its infrastructure assets under management to £3 billion since it began investing in the sector in 2012.