Aware Super, HESTA and the Clean Energy Finance Corp have piled into a new renewables investment platform led by fund manager Palisade Investment Partners as part of the mobilisation of investor capital to fund the US$250 trillion ($374 trillion) energy transition to net zero carbon.
“We see renewables generation as just part of the broader energy transition and decarbonisation story which will generate infrastructure investment opportunities,” Aware Super’s senior portfolio manager for infrastructure Mark Hector tells Investment Magazine. Aware has a $2 billion commitment to renewable energy and other climate solutions.
“We are also increasingly interested in further diversification away from traditional renewables generation into storage and firming capacity and other ancillary and emerging energy transition opportunities.”
Intera’s seed assets are comprised of Hallett 1 Wind Farm, Snowtown 2 Wind Farm, both located in South Australia; Granville Harbour Wind Farm in Tasmania; Macarthur Wind Farm in Victoria; and Ross River Solar Farm in Queensland.
The other investors are Palisade’s Renewable Energy Fund, Palisade’s Diversified Infrastructure Fund, Palisade direct investment clients, in addition to Aware, HESTA and the CEFC.
The new ownership vehicle has a combined installed capacity of around 1 gigawatt and an estimated first 12-months EBITDA of $150 million per annum.
Extra headroom
Aware, HESTA and CEFC are blending their stakes in the individual projects into one larger vehicle to get scale around asset management and operations as well debt financing explains Palisade executive director Simon Parbery.
Intera is structured with an “accordion” feature to allow for the addition of new wind farms in the future, he says.
It is backed by a $1.3 billion project finance loan provided by consortium of nine lenders comprising the domestic majors ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac; Chinese banks Bank of China and ICBC Bank; Japanese mega banks Mizuho Bank and MUFG Bank; and ING Bank. However, the final enterprise value was not disclosed.
There is also additional headroom in the loan to accommodate the acquisition of new projects according to Parbery.
