Glennmont Partners, an infrastructure manager owned by Nuveen, is planning to invest in solar projects in South Korea through a partnership with SK D&D.

Glennmont and South Korean renewable energy developer SK D&D have signed a co-investment memorandum of understanding with a plan to invest €150m into solar photovoltaic projects.

SK D&D will be responsible for sourcing, project management and operation of projects, while Glennmont will play the role of raising debt financing and selling projects to end buyers, the companies said.

Nuveen, which acquired Glennmont early last year, said at the time that the acquisition aims to accelerate Glennmont’s growth with a suite of new products backed by seed capital from Nuveen and TIAA that will target investment opportunities in European, US and Asian markets across the equity and credit space.

Joost Bergsma, CEO and managing partner of Glennmont Partners from Nuveen, said the agreement with SK D&D marks Glennmont’s entry into the South Korean renewables market.

“This is a landmark agreement for Glennmont as we look to grow our operations in Asia and establish long-term relationships with key partners that we can work with on multiple projects.

“As we continue to expand into new geographies this will be a core part of our strategy to deliver value for investors and accelerate the energy transition,” said Bergsma.

As part of the deal, SK D&D will enter the electricity trading business full scale and will benefit from the data generated by the assets to be acquired from the potential co-investments.

Harrison Kim, the head of the energy solution business division of SK D&D, said: “The electricity trading business requires having solar PV assets, and we started to discuss co-investment opportunities with one of the leading renewable energy funds, Glennmont Partners from Nuveen.

“SK D&D will establish a virtual power plant platform by acquiring a large number of power generation assets, forecasting yield, and utilising digital O&M solutions.”

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