BlackRock has held the first close of its Evergreen Infrastructure Fund with client commitments of over $1bn from European founding partners. The fund has already begun to commit capital, including to the acquisition of a US commercial and industrial (C&I) solar and battery platform.
Announced in June 2022, Evergreen Infrastructure is a core, open-ended infrastructure equity fund that focuses on investing in infrastructure businesses in Europe and North America aligned with the themes of energy transition and energy security. It seeks to deliver investors consistent long-term cash yield and resilient inflation-linked, fully contracted returns by investing in a portfolio of core infrastructure businesses diversified across geographies and sectors.
In addition to energy transition and energy security, the Fund will also focus on thematic sectors including transportation, digital infrastructure and the circular economy.
The fund’s open-ended structure enables it to be a long-term partner for infrastructure businesses looking for financing to support their evolution and growth through the decades-long energy transition. It will work with portfolio companies to help implement decarbonisation activities and actively track, assess, and report on progress over time. Evergreen Infrastructure will also track Temperature Alignment Key Performance Indicators, which will help the portfolio management team align the Fund, on an aggregate basis, to a 1.5°C temperature rise scenario.
The cornerstone commitments to Evergreen Infrastructure come from several European institutional investors as part of the Fund’s European Founding Partners programme. They include Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Italy’s largest bank, and Inarcassa, the first pillar pension scheme for Italian engineers and architects, among others. Western Europe, including Italy, is a key region for the fund, with 50-60% of the total portfolio expected to be allocated to the region.
Led by portfolio managers James Berner and David O’Brien, Evergreen Infrastructure builds on and extends BlackRock’s $48bn infrastructure platform.
