By Nora Buli
OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian energy transition investment fund Industry Capital Partners (ICP), backed by industrial group Aker ASA, plans to launch an inaugural 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) fund next year, the head of its infrastructure unit said on Tuesday.
“What we are working on at Industry Capital Partners are energy projects onshore,” Christian Rynning-Toennesen, head of ICP Infrastructure said on the sidelines of an offshore wind conference in Oslo.
The projects were mostly for onshore wind, as well as investments in data centres and power grid technology, and currently focused in Norway and Sweden, he added.
“Our aim is to establish that fund in the first half of next year, and then we must have a combination of real investments and investors who go into the fund,” said Rynning-Toennesen, who was previously CEO of Norwegian power producer Statkraft.
The aim is to raise 750 million euros, and at most 1 billion euros, to be spread out across a maximum of six projects, he added.
ICP is currently presenting its plans to potential investors and seeing “considerable interest” from both industrial and purely financial players such as pension funds, the CEO said.
In addition, the company has entered a partnership with United Arab Emirates’ renewable energy company Masdar on energy projects.
“Some of the investments we are looking at are larger than what we want to take on our own books, and then we can go and invest together with Masdar,” Rynning-Toennesen specified.
The first fund would not invest into offshore wind, he added.
“We see this as too much risk for such a fund.”
($1 = 0.9276 euros)
(Reporting by Nora Buli)
