The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and Schroders Greencoat, the specialist renewables and energy transition infrastructure manager of Schroders Capital, have together announced a new private markets fund focused on investing in energy transition infrastructure assets across Europe and in particular, Ireland where the Fund will be seeking to invest in a number of projects.
ISIF has committed €100m to the Fund, as a cornerstone investor, which has launched with over €220m in initial capital. Today’s announcement expands on the existing relationship between ISIF and Schroders Greencoat, with ISIF an anchor investor in the IPO of Greencoat Renewables PLC in 2017.
The Fund will aim to build a diversified portfolio of energy transition investments across Europe while investments in Ireland will be focused on the growth of renewable energy infrastructure capabilities, grid infrastructure, interconnection with Europe and the UK, and battery storage. Investment in the Irish market is expected to focus on greenfield new build projects.
The balance of capital raised for the Fund has come from funds managed by Schroders Greencoat, as well as from the European insurance sector and a Japanese utility.
Schroders Greencoat has extensive experience in investing in European energy infrastructure assets, having completed 35 transactions - comprising 46 energy transition assets with a total enterprise value of over €3bn.
Of this, €1.5bn has been invested across Irish wind, solar and battery storage assets.
Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD said: “I very much welcome today’s announcement of ISIF’s participation as a cornerstone investor in the new €220m private markets fund with Schroders Greencoat focused on investing in energy transition infrastructure assets across Europe and in particular, Ireland. The €100m commitment to the Fund announced today demonstrates ISIF’s commitment both to tackling climate change and to supporting the transition to Net Zero in Ireland while delivering on its double bottom line mandate to create jobs and growth.”
Paul Saunders, Senior Investment Director at ISIF, commented: “This investment is another strong example of ISIF’s double bottom line mandate, to invest on a commercial basis in a manner that’s designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. It also demonstrates ISIF’s ability to deploy capital in a targeted and commercial manner to tackle climate change and support the transition to Net Zero in Ireland. We look forward to building on our relationship with Schroders Greencoat, as we work together to invest in innovative solutions that support real-world decarbonisation at scale.”
Paul O’Donnell, Partner at Schroders Greencoat, commented: “We are delighted to launch this new fund with the support of ISIF and our other cornerstone investors. These commitments underline the strong market demand for exposure to the energy transition, despite the challenging market backdrop for infrastructure fundraising.
This is a fascinating time to be investing in the sector, with a number of mega trends converging, led by the need to decarbonise the global economy and the significant increase in renewable energy demand. This presents a compelling investment opportunity and we believe the Fund will act as a catalyst for the deployment of both domestic and international capital into Ireland and our other focus countries to support the delivery of a pipeline of assets that support the transition to Net Zero.
