VENTURE capital firm Scottish Equity Partners has sold its onshore wind farm portfolio to the Pensions Infrastructure Platform for £50 million.
Made up of 64 turbines in locations across the UK and Ireland, the portfolio contains all five of the wind farm investments made by the Environmental Capital Fund (ECF), a specialist infrastructure fund managed by SEP.
It ranges from single-turbine sites across the Orkney and Shetland Islands to utility-scale turbines in Curraghderrig, Ireland and the Port of Tilbury in London
PiP, which pools investment by pension funds, said the acquisition will supplement its existing wind assets including Aura, one of the largest stand-alone feed in tariff wind portfolios in the UK, and Blyth, a minority shareholding in a 550MW 24 site wind portfolio operated and majority owned by EDF.
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Peter Bachmann, a director in SEP’s technology infrastructure team, said it had built up a portfolio of worth. He said: “We are pleased to conclude this sale to PiP.
“Over the last four years, we have added significant value to the portfolio through active management and a hands-on approach.
“We believe this is the appropriate time for our fund to exit and we wish PiP success in the future.”
Joe Davis, of PiP, said that the firm is “delighted to have acquired this portfolio as it further provides our pension scheme investors with long term, inflation-linked cash flows to be used to help meet their pension obligations”.
The wind farm disposal by SEP follows the recent high-profile sale of another of the firm’s energy infrastructure investments, Indigo Pipelines
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Indigo, the third largest independent gas transportation network in the UK with approximately 180,000 gas connections, was purchased by independent infrastructure asset manager Arjun Infrastructure Partners in February.
SEP said it invests in UK and European companies across a range of technology sectors, including technology infrastructure.
It says its track record now spans 20 years, and it has supported more than 160 companies, “providing investment alongside expertise and access to a global network enabling them to become international leaders”.
It also moves to build supportive long-term relationships with management teams and says it has been an active shareholder in some of Europe’s most successful technology companies.
SEP was the largest shareholder in flight planner Skyscanner on its £1.4 billion sale to Chinese travel management group Ctrip in 2016.
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Formed in 2014, ECF is backed by SSE plc, as well as a syndicate of investors led by Lexington Partners, said to be the world’s largest independent manager of secondary private equity and co-investment funds, and Hermes GPE.
Typically investing up to £25m, SEP also funds larger deals, co-investing with others, and it also has specialist interests in enterprise software, consumer internet, energy technology and tech-enabled service businesses
PiP said it offers an alignment of interest that cannot be found in the traditional asset management sector.
It launched the Multi-Strategy Infrastructure fund in 2016 and has acquired several UK based renewable energy assets as well as a portfolio of PPP/PFI assets.
PiP acquired a 100 per cent stake in a portfolio of six solar farms in 2017.
SEP was advised on the transaction by solicitors, Pinsent Mason, and PiP was advised on the transaction by Eversheds Sutherland, IDCM, Mazars, and JLT.
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