Four Nordic Pension Plans Commit $700 Million to Renewable Energy
Three Danish pension funds and one Norwegian plan have invested $700 million in a renewable energy infrastructure fund.
The four Nordic funds, $35.2 billion PensionDanmark, ATP ($125 billion), Laegernes Pension ($134 billion), and Norway’s Kommunal Landspensionkasse ($700 million), will focus their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts on mostly Asian and Latin American infrastructure projects. They are pooling their ESG investments in a new vehicle to manage the money, the Copenhagen Infrastructure New Markets Fund I portfolio.
The infra-fund will also target select countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, its parent, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said in a statement. Targeted projects will include wind, solar, and biomass and transmission grid systems over a 10-year period.
Copenhagen Infrastructure also expects the new markets fund to grow to at least $1 billion before it closes in February.
PensionDanmark has committed $250 million so far, and ATP, Copenhagen Infrastructure’s newest client of the bunch, is expected to invest about the same. Laegernes and Kommunal have injected the remaining $200 million.
Torben Möger Pedersen, PensionDanmark chief and a member of Copenhagen Infrastructure’s investment committee, called the consortium a “natural next step” to show investors ESG opportunities in new growth markets in Asia and Latin America.
“The investment case is illustrating how to mobilize private capital in large scale to the green transition and thereby contribute to the global climate agenda,” he said.
Niels Holst will be the New Markets Fund’s portfolio manager. He comes from Capricorn Real Assets, a financial advisory firm. Copenhagen Infrastructure has also hired a new team from other institutions to help Holst steer the ship.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has five funds under managements, which hold $8.4 billion in commitments.
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