Three Nordic investors, PKA, PenSam and Storebrand, have announced the launch of a new energy transition fund, with the trio committing most of the €4bn being targeted.
The fund is to be run by AIP Management, the alternatives joint venture belonging to Danish pension funds PKA and PenSam, with Norway’s Storebrand coming in for the first time as co-investor as well as co-owner of the alternatives management operation.
Financial group Storebrand said the investment was the beginning of its expansion into infrastructure investment.
Jon Jonsen, chief executive officer of PKA - the founder and majority owner of AIP Management - said: “With a total commitment of up to €4bn in one of the largest climate and infrastructure funds ever in the Nordic region, we are raising our common ambitions for sustainable investments to a new level.”
Jonsen said the entry of a large investor such as Storebrand shows the success AIP has had since the platform was established in 2012 and that the model is unique not only in a Danish context but in an international light.
With a hard cap set for the new fund of DKK30bn (€4bn), PKA confirmed that it was open to another investor joining the trio.
AIP Management said that as well as delivering profitable long-term returns, the aim of the new fund - AIP Infrastructure II - was to make a clear contribution to reduce climate change and advance the green transition.
The three pension investors said in the announcement that their commitments to the new fund would also contribute to achieving the goal set last year by the Danish pension sector and the Danish Government to invest DKK350bn in the green transition by 2030.
At a meeting last month, Nordic prime ministers discussed how this Danish initiative could be applied in the other Nordic countries.
AIP Management said it already managed investments worth DKK30bn on behalf of PKA and PenSam, with assets including wind turbines and solar parks.
In September, the firm bought a 30% stake in the public-private partnership train operator Agility Trains East on behalf of PenSam and PKA, which said the UK project was helping to replace old and inefficient diesel trains with new, mainly electric trains.
The three institutions investing in AIP Infrastructure II are not disclosing their individual commitments to the new fund, nor the size of ownership stake that Storebrand will take in AIP Management.
However, a spokesman for PKA told IPE Real Assets that PKA would remain the largest owner in the infrastructure firm, not counting the collective stake owned by the partners. He also said that out of PKA, PenSam and Storebrand, PKA was making the biggest commitment to the AIP Infrastructure II.
Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Storebrand Asset Management, said: “This marks the start of our expansion into infrastructure as an investor and asset manager and it enables us to further contribute to the green transition in an excellent way.”
While Storebrand has made some smaller investments in infrastructure funds before, this is its first significant move into the asset class, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian group said.
Meanwhile, Torsten Fels, CEO of PenSam, said It is ”precisely this kind of collaboration that is key to us, so that we on behalf of our members, can continue to push the green transition in the right direction.”
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