Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has reached first close on its fifth flagship fund Copenhagen Infrastructure V (CI V) at €5.6bn in capital commitments received – putting it on track to reach its target size of €12bn and become the world’s largest dedicated greenfield renewable energy fund.
A large group of leading institutional investors across Europe, the Nordics, UK, North America and the Asia-Pacific region participated in the first close of the fund, backed by the strong appetite of additional investors already in process.
“We’re delighted by the continued trust in CIP from our existing investors, and are pleased to welcome the many new investors to our renewable energy platform,” said CIP managing partner Jakob Baruël Poulsen. “Reaching nearly €6bn at first close is a testament to the importance of the fund, and the confidence placed in our industrial approach to energy infrastructure investments. With its greenfield focus and large and diversified portfolio, CI V has the potential to significantly contribute to, and accelerate the energy transition on a global scale, while generating strong returns for our investors.”
CIP said the investment strategy is a continuation of its predecessor flagship funds CI I, CI II, CI III, and CI IV, applying the same well-tested industrial value-creation approach, whereby projects are entered early and significantly de-risked and optimised, prior to the start of construction to capture the attractive greenfield premium. The fund will focus on greenfield investments within large-scale renewable energy infrastructure. It has a global reach and intends to diversify investments across technologies such as contracted offshore wind, energy storage, onshore wind and solar in low-risk OECD countries in North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific it added.
“We believe the market timing for investment of CI V is favourable,” added Baruël Poulsen.
“The strong and accelerating demand for new renewable infrastructure to secure energy independence and deliver on ambitious climate pledges creates many new investment opportunities. The fund and CIP are well-positioned to capture the attractive market opportunities, backed by our strong and extensive track record, our large team of experienced industrialists, and our ownership of one of the world’s largest portfolios of greenfield renewable energy projects.
“Our large investment pipeline and broad capabilities across all major renewable technologies and presence in all key markets enable us to select the best projects for the fund and to build a well-diversified portfolio.”
CI V is off to a strong start with the largest project pipeline of any CIP fund to date the company said. At first close, the fund has ownership of more than 40 renewable energy infrastructure projects with a total potential CI V commitment of approximately €20bn, corresponding to more than 150% of the target fund size. The large seed portfolio provides significant optionality and flexibility in project selection and portfolio construction, as well as investment execution robustness and visibility the fund stated.
In June, CI V took its first final investment decision on a +400MW onshore wind project in the US, expected to start construction in the coming months.
Based on the current portfolio, CI V is targeting to add an estimated 20GW of new clean energy capacity to the grid, enough to power more than 10 million average households with renewable energy, which corresponds to an annual CO2 avoidance of 15m metric tonnes.