Industry Funds Management hopes to raise over $1 billion for its infrastructure funds by mid this year.
The majority of the raising is being channelled into its international infrastructure fund which will double the size of that fund to more than $1 billion. IFM recently announced the acquisition of a 34 per cent stake in Polish heating and cogeneration plant operator Zespol Elektrocieplownie w Lodzki (ZEC Lodz) from a subsidiary of French energy group Dalkia. IFM acquired the stake for 88 million euro and ZEC Lodz is the third asset in the international infrastructure fund which now has close to $500 million in assets under management. “We started looking at it in September last year. We like it because it’s a co-generation asset. Its efficiency is very high,” Christian Seymour, IFM Infrastructure investment manager, said. Damien Moloney, IFM general manager, said the group expected to make two or three more acquisitions in the international infrastructure fund this year and acquire one or two domestic assets, most likely in the social infrastructure space. “A lot of our focus at the moment will be international in the short term because the market in Australia is tough,” Seymour said. ZEC Lodz was recently privatised by the Polish government and Dalkia became the strategic shareholder and operator. The company is located in the second largest Polish city, Lodz, where the government has implemented a number of measures designed to attract multi-national companies.
While the energy transition and critical minerals are receiving a lot of attention as important megatrends, an Investment Magazine roundtable, hosted in partnership with New Forests, has heard that natural capital is an equally crucial piece of the nature puzzle but is "underrepresented, underinvested and generally misunderstood".
Hosted by Simon HoyleDecember 9, 2024
