Prime Capital launches Prime Green Energy Infrastructure Fund

German independent asset manager Prime Capital AG has launched the fundraising for Prime Green Energy Infrastructure Fund (“the Fund”), a fund which will invest in wind-powered energy assets in the Nordics. 

The Fund, which is currently being set up, will offer investors attractive investment opportunities in a constantly evolving market place, with no reliance on government support. The Fund will secure assets in their late development stage and exploit their full return potential, by being actively involved in their “commercialization”. This is understood as the process of optimizing the layouts, contracts, and financial structures of already permitted projects.

In order to achieve economies of scale and deploy capital effectively, the Fund will focus solely on large-scale projects. Prime Capital has already secured the first three seed investments for the Fund. Based in Norway and Sweden, the permitted projects total over 600MW of capacity.

The Fund envisages having a non-exclusive collaboration agreement in the Nordic countries between Prime Capital and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), a market leader within the wind industry. The collaboration was successfully tested in recent transactions – including project Nordlys, Norway’s second largest onshore wind project to date. Comprising of ca. 280MW, it will be commissioned in 2019. Siemens Financial Services co-invested in the project along with a German pension fund.

The Fund targets a net return of over 8% and has a term of 8 years, subject to two potential one-year extensions. The Fund aims to raise over EUR500 million (US$557.19 million) and make between 7 and 12 investments.

It is currently in advanced discussions with seed investors for its First Closing.