EUROPE - AXA Private Equity's third infrastructure fund has agreed to acquire just under 24% of Luxembourg-based utility company Enovos for €330m by the end of June.

The French insurer's private equity arm acquired the shareholding in the gas, electricity generation and renewables transmission company from steel firm ArcelorMittal.

Other Enovos shareholders include the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which owns just over 25% of the firm.

Although the Enovos acquisition - the fund's fourth asset - is perhaps surprisingly sizeable, a spokesman for the fund said there would be co-investment opportunities at a later stage.

The asset would account for more than a third of the fund's current size by price, except that the payment will be made in two tranches - when the deal is closed at the end of June and the second in two years' time.

The vehicle has a target size of €1.5bn.

Fundraising for the third infrastructure fund slowed amid negotiations over the planned spinout of the French insurer's private equity arm.

The fund raised just €150m between September last year and the end of April. 

AXA RE is now understood to have agreed a deal that will increase the shareholding of employees and management, with additional capital coming from Canadian pension scheme Caisse de Dépot et Placement du Québec and GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund.

AXA PE is scouting additional assets across infrastructure sub-sectors to add to the utility, renewables and wind-farm assets already in the fund.

The spokesman said there was no specific regional preference, with a focus on asset quality rather than sub-sector or country.

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