Clean energy financier CEFC backs IFM Australian Infrastructure Fund

Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), a specialist clean energy financier, is committing AUD150m (€94m) to IFM Australian Infrastructure Fund.

A CEFC spokesperson told IPE Real Assets:  “This is our first equity commitment in a diversified infrastructure fund. We will continue to consider all potential investments on a case by case basis.”

In addition to today’s announcement, she said: “We have committed AUD150m in debt finance to Qube Holdings to influence the use of clean energy technologies at the Moorebank Logistics Park in south-western Sydney.”

Managed by IFM Investors, the fund’s AUD12bn portfolio includes electricity generator Ausgrid, Brisbane Airport, Melbourne Airport, Sydney’s Port Botany and the Port of Brisbane.

Announcing the investment, CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth said: “It is absolutely critical that the assets of today contribute to the overall emissions reduction task we are facing.”

Learmonth added that CEFC will ”work with IFM Investors to enhance benchmarks and transparency around infrastructure emissions so that we can deliver a step-change in the emissions profile of our national infrastructure.”

Kyle Mangini, IFM Investors Global Head of Infrastructure, said: “The fact that this is the first commitment by the CEFC to an infrastructure fund reflects our alignment to a cleaner future.”

She said, with the support of the CEFC, IFM would accelerate its programme of measuring, reporting, and decreasing emissions from Australian infrastructure assets.

CEFC plans to work with IFM Investors on such initiatives as the installation of onsite solar PV and battery storage solutions and conversions to electric vehicles.

According to Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, infrastructure-related emissions account for more than half Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from the electricity sector (35%) and transport (18%).

CEFC has, so far, committed more than AUD1bn to the property sector, with entities such as Lendlease’s Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial, Dexus Healthcare Wholesale Property Fund and others.