HIH Invest Real Estate has expanded into infrastructure with the launch of an open-ended European renewable energy fund.

The manager said the HIH Green Energy Invest fund, which is expected to grow to €750m, has bought a 13.2MW wind farm in France as its first asset. 

The fund has invested an undisclosed sum to buy the Grande Lande wind farm in the French Loire region from BayWa re.

HIH Invest said the Green Energy Invest fund targets long-term investments in photovoltaics and onshore wind power projects worth between 20 and €120m.

The fund will mainly target opportunities in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain but will also consider investments in the Benelux countries, the UK, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and the Nordics.

Kristof Krull, the head of infrastructure at HIH Invest, said: “What makes this a reasonable target are not least the perfectly predictable revenues: Solar irradiation and wind force can be reliably forecast, power purchase agreements have long terms, and the demand for electricity is growing.”

Alexander Eggert, managing director of HIH Invest, said: “For HIH Invest, the new fund is a premiere in more ways than one. For the first time, we are venturing outside the classic real estate sector and entering a new asset class that, while having a lot in common with it, differs in many ways from our accustomed business.

“We have pushed forward with the diversification of our product line-up over the past few years, and are opening up new growth areas. This gives us an even broader range of options to meet our clients’ needs.”

André Rolff, head of transaction management infrastructure, said: “The wind farm will generate attractive feed-in revenues via a government-guaranteed feed-in tariff that is valid for an operating period of 20 years and is inflation-indexed, too.

“This enables us to secure stable long-term earnings for the HIH Green Energy Invest fund.”

To read the latest edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here. 

Topics

Related Companies