The UK鈥檚 Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) has completed its first deal with its inaugural in-house fund, acquiring debt in a rooftop solar provider.
The 拢27.5m (鈧�32.7m) investment will be used to refinance debt of an unnamed UK solar power provider, the fund manager said in a statement.
PIP said the investment, facilitated by Novatio Capital, met all criteria for its Multi-Strategy Infrastructure Fund (MSIF), which is and by its from the West Midlands Pension Fund, Strathclyde Pension Fund and others.
The inflation-linked debt, with a 20-year maturity, will be used to refinance a portfolio of 2,399 rooftop solar assets across England and Wales with a capacity of 6.7 megawatts.
Mike Weston, chief executive of PIP, hailed the investment as a 鈥渕ilestone鈥� for the manager.
鈥淲e are pleased to have been able to work with Novatio Capital to structure and execute a transaction that provides our investors with the secured, long-term, inflation-linked cash flows they are seeking to support their accrued pension payment obligations,鈥� he said.
Speaking with IPE Real Estate earlier this week, Weston alluded to further deals.
鈥淲e鈥檙e working on opportunities as we speak, and we have a decent pipeline of opportunities stretching through the remainder of this year into next year,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of activity around in the market. Clearly, not all of it is appropriate to PiP, but we鈥檝e not struggled to find things to work on.鈥�
The MSIF is the first internally managed fund for PIP, which is owned by a number of the UK鈥檚 largest pension funds, including the Pension Protection Fund and Strathclyde.
To date, PIP鈥檚 investments have been overseen by two external managers.
Dalmore Capital in 2014 launched a 拢500m public/private partnership fund on behalf of PIP, and also project.
A second fund was launched in 2015, and exclusively targeting renewable power assets.
