Deals

Union acquires fifth wind farm

The German firm’s maiden infra fund, which has a target of €300m, is now deployed across four countries.

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Union Investment has bought the Burton Pidsea wind farm in Yorkshire, north-east England.

The German asset manager will acquire the plant from Bremen-based developer EnergieKontor, which will continue to handle technical and commercial operation of the farm after completion of the transaction.

The facility is made up of three 3.4-megawatt (MW) turbines installed by Hamburg’s Repower. It became operational in December 2013.

The deal marks the fifth acquisition by UniInstitutional Infrastruktur, Union’s maiden infrastructure vehicle. Launched 13 months ago, the fund held a second close on €100 million last August – meaning that it had €350 million available for investment when including debt financing. The fund has a €300 million target.

The vehicle is now invested in wind farms spanning four countries, comprising Germany, France, Ireland and the UK. “The fund has largely achieved the planned broad diversification across different turbine manufacturers and also different feed-in systems,” the firm said in a statement.

Based in Frankfurt, Union Investment has more than €180 billion in assets under management and provides equity, fixed income, money market, alternative investment and quantitative structured products to private and institutional clients in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.