Morrison & Co has received €220m worth of commitments for a newly launched European renewables platform.
The manager said its New Zealand-based infrastructure investment firm Infratil owns a 40% stake in newly the Galileo Green Energy (GGE) platform with co-investors the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and the Morrison & Co Growth Infrastructure Fund, each of which has a 20% interest.
Morrison & Co said GGE, led by Ingmar Wilhelm as CEO, has already secured its first partnership with renewable energy developer EMPower to jointly develop a 300MW portfolio of greenfield wind farm sites in Ireland.
GGE was created to invest in the development of wind and solar energy projects as well as storage solutions across all of Europe including its largest markets, Italy, Spain, France Germany and the UK, the manager said.
Jason Boyes, head of Europe at Morrison & Co, said: “In line with our recent communication to expand our international presence into Europe, we have focused our first new investment in a sector of critical importance with significant growth prospects.
We are teaming up with an industry-leading management team with the right experience and expertise to build a significant renewables development platform.”
Vimal Vallabh, global head of energy at Morrison and Co, said: “The EU is one of the world’s largest and most dynamic energy markets, offering significant renewable infrastructure investment opportunities as the shift away from fossil fuels gathers pace.
“Our investment into GGE reinforces our belief in the longevity of the sector and its place in the future energy mix of Europe. The increasing complexity of the interconnected energy markets in Europe and the changing sources of energy suit our long-term investment horizon and in-house expertise.”
Ingmar Wilhelm, CEO of Galileo Green Energy, said: “The combination of experienced, long-term oriented investment partners with proven development skills is a very sound basis for a major investment initiative in the European renewable energy market.
“The highly experienced Galileo Green Energy team will provide an end to end solution, including business development, power off-take solutions, energy management and financing. This combination is crucial in order to make renewable projects highly competitive and the best choice in the energy mix of any European country.”
