IPE Real Assets

Macquarie Asset Management is selling its interest in an electricity distribution network in the south-western Romania to Premier Energy. The asset manager, on behalf of Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 6), said it has agreed to divest its interest in Evyro Group’s power distribution network to Premier Energy. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Macquarie invested in Evryo in 2021.

SmartestEnergy (SEL), the energy firm owned by Japanese investment firm Marubeni Corporation, has entered the Iberian and Latin American markets through the acquisition of an 85% stake in Factor Energia (FE) for €204m. Founded in 1999 as Spain’s first independent power retailer following market liberalisation, Factor Energia operates a power and gas wholesale and retail business serving commercial and residential customers across Iberia and Latin America.

Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System has approved a $55m (€47m) commitment to I Squared Capital’s latest global infrastructure fund. The pension fund disclosed in its March activity summary report that it committed the capital to ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund IV,  which is seeking to raise $15bn with no hard cap set.

Infrastructure manager I Squared Capital is set to acquire a portfolio of natural gas storage assets in the US from Spire Inc for $650m (€551.2m). I Squared has agreed to buy the natural gas storage assets of Spire in the US states of Wyoming and Oklahoma in a deal comprising $600m in cash at closing and a $50m deferred payment. The assets consist of Spire Storage West and Spire Storage Salt Plains.

Real estate manager Lingerfelt and private markets investor Partners Group have sold their 1.16m sqft Walthall-Northlake Industrial Portfolio in the US for $175m (€148.5m). The fully-leased asset, located in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area, was sold to an unnamed buyer. The portfolio includes three buildings within Walthall Distribution Center in South Chesterfield, Virginia, and another building in Ashland, Virginia.

Nuveen Real Estate’s European Cities strategy has made three acquisitions across France and Spain in a move to tap into structural megatrends shaping European real estate. The purchases comprise two build-to-rent assets in the Spanish cities of Madrid and Tarragona, and a purpose-built student and co-living buliding in the Batignolles neighbourhood of Paris. All three assets were 100% occupied at acquisition, Nuveen said in a statement.

Pan-European manager M7 Real Estate has acquired two recently developed logistics assets in Germany for a joint venture fund backed by AustralianSuper and Oxford Properties. Miles Chuter, director, transactions at M7 Real Estate, said: “With this transaction, we’ve further strengthened our ESCIP platform by deploying €37.5m into high quality logistics assets across strong locations in Germany where demand for well specified space continues to outstrip supply.

Stegra, the Swedish green impact company constructing the world’s first large-scale, integrated green steel plant, has agreed €1.4bn in financing from investors including Wallenberg Investments, Temasek and Hy24 and Just Climate. The financing round, which has been agreed in principle, is led by a consortium formed by Wallenberg Investments alongside Singaporean state-owned multinational investment firm Temasek and IMAS Foundation, which will take a leading position in Stegra.

EQT is selling a 30% stake in Nordic Ferry Infrastructure (NFI) to a consortium comprising Rederiaktiebolaget Gotland (Gotlandsbolaget), Interogo Infrastructure and Lægernes Pension, the Danish pension fund for doctors, for €510m. Gotlandsbolaget is the largest shareholder in the consortium’s NP HoldCo, maintaining a 54% stake. EQT said it will retain majority ownership of the platform through its EQT Infrastructure V fund following the completion of the transaction.

The Firemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago has issued a request for proposal for non-core US real estate managers, with a total mandate of approximately $55m. (€47m). The allocation will support The Firemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago’s 2.5% target for non-core real estate. The pension fund plans to consider commitments to multiple managers, with a final selection expected in August.