New renewables infra fund aiming for £300m

The fund, a partnership between InfraRed Capital Partners and renewable energy developer RES, will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The Renewables Infrastructure Group, a new company, has announced its intention to launch an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange with the aim of raising up to £300 million (€352 million; $460 million).

The fund is a partnership between InfraRed Capital Partners, a London-based manager with 14 infrastructure and real estate funds including the listed, £1.5 billion HICL Infrastructure Company; and Renewable Energy Systems (RES), a UK-based renewable energy developer.

InfraRed will act as investment manager for the fund and RES as operations manager. The fund is incorporated in Guernsey and will invest in onshore wind and solar photovoltaic energy generation assets.

Upon IPO, the fund intends to have agreements in place to acquire a 276-megawatt (MW) portfolio of 14 onshore wind farms and four solar photovoltaic parks in the UK, Ireland and France. It will then have a right of first offer over a pipeline of assets being developed by RES. As well as the three initial target locations, future places of interest are expected to include Germany and Scandinavia.

According to a statement, the fund will target an initial annual dividend of 6 pence per ordinary share with the aim of increasing it in line with inflation over the medium term, and an internal rate of return of 8 to 9 percent net of fees and expenses over the longer term.

“We have assembled a diversified portfolio of fully operating seed assets, which has been carefully constructed to provide a steady long term yield, whilst retaining capital value,” said Richard Crawford, a director of infrastructure at InfraRed in a statement.

In March this year, fund manager Greencoat Capital listed a wind fund on the London Stock Exchange, beating a target of £205 million with a £260 million fundraising.