Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is the newest investor into Sydney-based Pro-invest’s Australian Hospitality Opportunity Fund II (AHOFII).

The Australian government’s green bank said its A$50m (€31m) investment into AHOFII, which invests in hotels in Australia and New Zealand, would be directed to building new hotels with a 5-star rating under the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS).

CEFC joins around a dozen domestic and global investors, including a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, German and Swiss institutions participating in the fund, which invests in hotels in Australia and New Zealand.

The latest investment will add to A$300m already raised.

Sabine Schaffer, Pro-Invest managing partner overseeing international asset management, told IPE Real Assets that “bigger” investors were in due diligence and it was expected they could make commitments before the end of this year.

With their investment, Schaffer said the fund, which currently owned four hotel assets, would hit its hard cap of around A$500m.

The Pro-invest Fund II will develop, operate and manage Holiday Inn Express and IHG lifestyle hotels in strategically-selected central business district hubs. It is developing two Holiday Inn Express hotels.

Pro-invest is one of the largest hotel investment platforms with assets valued at around A$2bn in Australasia, and the only hotel developer, owner and manager in Australia to require NABERS Energy ratings for all of its properties.