German asset manager Prime Capital has reached the final close of its sustainable Prime Green Energy Infrastructure Fund (PGEIF) with €586m of commitments.
These total commitments exceeded the target volume of €500m.
The fund, launched in June 2020, is focused on onshore wind in Scandinavia.
Prime Capital secured several investment projects for the fund in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
These investments have increased Prime Capital’s track record in the infrastructure sector to over 2GW of realised capacity.
Prime Capital has already started the construction phase for the first three large-scale projects secured for the fund, with a total capacity of 816MW, and one has already achieved grid connection.
The addition of three to five further projects is also planned.
In addition to wind, the fund will also implement related themes, in particular the production of green hydrogen and other carbon-neutral energy sources.”
By entering the projects early, the value generated during the commercialisation phase is made available to investors, thereby generating an alpha of two to three percentage points of return compared to conventional investment strategies.
This approach, which has already been tested several times, includes, among other things, the extension of approval periods, the optimisation of both the wind farm layout and the turbine technology as well as a broad tendering of operational management contracts, Prime Capital stated.
“The idea of launching this fund arose almost four years ago as part of the successful cooperation with Siemens Financial Services and Siemens Gamesa,” said Mathias Bimberg, head of infrastructure at Prime Capital.
“We would not have dared to dream that we would exceed our original target of €500m by such a significant margin, in particular in an economic environment dominated by the pandemic.
“The final close of our PGEIF is perhaps the finest way for us to celebrate our 10 years of activity in the renewable energy sector.”