Gresham House’s flagship infrastructure and housing investment platform has made its first investment in the UK.

British Strategic Investment Fund (BSIF), is acting as the sole outside investor in the financing of 30MW of operational grid-scale energy storage assets.

In June last year, IPE Real Assets reported that Gresham House has raised £150m (€169.3m) in the first close of its fund.

BSIF was backed by UK local government pension schemes (LGPS), including the Berkshire Pension Fund and another unnamed LGPS fund.

The specialist asset manager said today the fund has invested through a combination of senior cash paid loan notes and equity in a dedicated project company. 

The project involves 30MW of battery storage assets spread across three sites in Nottinghamshire, Bristol and Essex. 

Operational and technical oversight is carried out by Gresham House New Energy and Noriker Power, it said.

Gresham House said this deal is expected to form part of a more extensive Gresham House Energy Storage System portfolio. 

The company has now developed 50MW that is commercially operational and providing services to the National Grid, it said, adding that it has a development pipeline in excess of 200MW. 

Ben Guest, the investment director for BSIF, said: “Energy storage is one area of the new energy sector that has significant potential from an institutional investment standpoint and is a market that will see strong growth in the coming years. 

“Not only does it deliver a financial return from a range of short and long-term revenue streams, but it also has a positive social impact.”

Guest said these projects benefit from typically low correlation to traditional asset classes, a partial link to inflation, good cash flow and significant asset backing. 

“The British Strategic Investment Fund team has an exciting pipeline of further investments in UK Housing and Infrastructure which will be deployed in the first and second quarters of this year. We look forward to disclosing the details in due course,” Guest said.

Peter Moon, the chairman of the investment committee for BSIF, said: “Moving forward British Strategic Investment Fund will continue to focus on generating attractive returns in a cost-effective manner from illiquid investments in infrastructure-related assets as well as UK housing. 

“We have had excellent feedback on the Gresham House investor portal which is adding a new level of transparency to these socially beneficial projects whilst providing co-investment potential and we are actively pursuing opportunities to bring on board other LGPS’s, corporate pension funds, endowments and family offices.”

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