Finnish pension insurance company Elo is gaining exposure to six more Nordic wind farms by investing in a fund managed by Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners (CSEIP), alongside two other European institutional investors.
The €25bn Finnish earnings-related pension provider said the investment gives it ownership of around 20% of the 90MW Kalax onshore wind farm in Närpes in western Finland and brings the total number of wind farms it has invested in to 11.
CSEIP bought an 80% stake in four wind farms from Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum, including the Kalax plant, for around €250m, Elo said.
In addition, Elo said that through the fund, the goal was to buy shares in a further two wind power plants.
Fortum announced the deal at the end of December to sell the majority stake in its Nordic wind portfolio to the Swiss manager.
The portfolio consisted of the operational Norwegian plants Nygårdsfjellet and Ånstadblåheia, with 32MW and 50MW of capacity respectively, and the 76MW Swedish facility Solberg, along with the Kalax wind farm, which was under construction, Fortum said at the time.
Parties to the deal also agreed that funds advised by CSEIP would invest in an 80% share of the 97MW Sørfjord wind farm in Norway, once it was fully commissioned, and signed an exclusivity deal on a new 154MW project in Sävar, Sweden, with the ambition to build it at a later stage.
Jan Schulman, portfolio manager at Elo said: “Wind farms have long-term commercial electricity sales agreements that enable a steady income.”
He said the investors would receive an immediate cash flow return from the wind farms already in operation in Norway and Sweden, which he said would contribute to the construction of the Finnish installation.
Early last year, Elo took part in establishing the Exilion Tuuli investment company that has invested in three wind power farms with a total capacity of approximately 65MW in Finland, according to the pension insurer’s annual report.
The firm said it had also invested in wind power in the Nordics and solar energy via a global fund during the course of last year.
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