Good morning Eurohubsters, Nina Lindholm here with Thursday’s Dealflow.
We’re approaching the end of the week, and to give us a boost, I thought it would be good to kick off with an energy deal. Outside of deals, we’ve noticed that many PE firms seem keen to open units to enable better access for private investors. Partners Group is the most recent passenger on that trend train, but more on that later.
Big plans. Green energy and the energy transition are, for lack of a better word, hot, right now. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some data points regarding energy deals in Europe, which seem to be soaring. There is another deal under heated discussion in the sector – Actis-backed Rezolv Energy has acquired the rights to build and operate a 1,044 MW solar photovoltaic plant in Arad County, Romania from Monsson Group.
The plant is expected to be the largest of its kind in Europe, according to Actis. It is set to be online by 2025 and to provide clean energy to more than 370,000 households.
“This transaction illustrates the scale of Actis’ ambition to invest in the energy transition across the world in general and in the CEE region in particular,” said Jaroslava Korpanec, partner and head of Central and Eastern Europe at Actis. “This transaction follows Rezolv’s announcement in September to deliver a 450MW wind farm in Romania, and we are working closely with Rezolv on further renewable energy investments, which we hope to announce in early 2023.”
In late July, PE Hub Europe reported on the launch of Rezolv Energy, a Central and Southeastern Europe renewables platform that represents $6 billion of investable capital.
London-headquartered Actis invests primarily in energy infrastructure, long life infrastructure, digital infrastructure and real estate.
Step on the gas. Speaking of energy, over on PE Hub, my colleague Obey Martin Manayiti has written a great feature story.
Obey writes about how the massive stimulus of $400 billion from the US’s Inflation Reduction Act has sparked the renewable energy movement, but inflationary pressures have brought investors back to oil and gas. Most PE investors described the act as a game changer for the renewables sector. “We have never had stimulus anything close to this size,” said Doug Kimmelman, founder and senior partner at Energy Capital Partners.
On the other side of the coin, oil and gas private equity investors are seeing a resurgence as the rising price of gas – driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – has changed the equation for the sector, which has seen underinvestment for more than a decade.
“This is our 25th year in business and the last time we saw opportunities with the same kind of risk-adjusted returns were back in the late 1990s to 2001,” said Wil VanLoh, founder and CEO of Quantum Energy Partners.
To learn more, head on over to PE Hub to read Obey’s in-depth story. It includes comments from firms such as Carlyle, Warburg Pincus, Hamilton Lane and more.
Private party. As mentioned, there is more news on PE firms opening doors for private wealth investors. Just yesterday, I introduced Craig McGlashan’s piece on the growing popularity of private markets among individual investors. Partners Group announced it has established a Private Wealth business unit, committing to expanding access to private markets for individual investors.
The Private Wealth business unit will be co-led by Robert Collins, partner, and Christian Wicklein, managing director, who will cover the Americas, and Europe and APAC, respectively. The unit has $37 billion in assets under management, nearly one-third of the firm’s total $131 billion in assets under management.
“Partners Group is committed to making private markets fairer and more accessible,” said Robert Collins, co-head of Private Wealth, Partners Group. “With the addressable market expected to increase significantly, we are well positioned to remain at the forefront of this industry.”
The move echoes similar actions PE Hub Europe has seen in recent months, including Tikehau Capital and iCapital launching a digital marketplace for wealth managers in September. In early October, Paris-based Ardian also announced a partnership with iCapital to provide similar access.
That’s all from me this morning. I’ll write to you again tomorrow.
Cheers,
Nina
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try to sign in again. If the problem persists, please email: 
