F2i sgr‘s Infrastructure Debt Fund 1 (IDF1 ) has already closed five direct lending investments, investing more than 200 million euros, and garnered interest from investors of about 400 million euros, the Italian management company announced yesterday, pointing out it expects to reach the final fundraising target of 500 million in the coming months (see the press release here).
F2i sgr actually had announced the first closing of IDF1 fundraising in August 2022 with 310 million euros in commitments (see here a previous article by BeBeez) and had reached 330 million euros in commitments by December 2022.
Two of the five investments were also announced yesterday, although they were closed in recent months. One of these is the first closed by the fund abroad: in fact, IDF1 participated in the €6.85 billion financing to support DigitalBridge and Brookfiled‘s acquisition of 51 percent of GD Towers from Deutsche Telekom, which was announced in July 2022 (see here he press release) and finalized last February. GD Towers is one of Europe’s leading telecom tower operators, with 40,000 mobile sites in Germany and Austria, where it figures as the 1st and 2nd largest market players, respectively. As a result of the acquisition, GD Towers plans to strengthen its investment plan to spread access to connection and telecommunication services on mobile networks in urban, suburban and rural areas, with positive impact on the quality of services and economic development of the territories concerned.
The other IDF1 deal that has yet to be communicated before, on the other hand, concerns the fact that the fund participated in the 250-million-euro loan disbursed last April to Compagnia Valdostana delle Acque (CVA) by a pool of financial institutions, aimed at refinancing existing debt and making acquisitions and investments to support the energy transition, the development of the hydroelectric, wind and photovoltaic sectors, with the goal of reaching 2 Gigawatts of installed capacity by the group (see here a previous article by BeBeez). In addition to consolidating its contribution to national hydropower generation and optimal management of regional water resources, CVA will thus increase its commitment to decarbonization, maintaining a focus on the long-term sustainability of its renewable energy facilities including through the involvement of local stakeholders.
Last June, on the other hand, F2i participated in the financing of Acque spa, the company that manages the integrated water service in the Lower Valdarno area, which cashed in lines totaling 355 million euros (see here a previous article by BeBeez). Of these resources, 225 million came on the one hand from a pool of banks composed of Banco BPM, BBVA, BNL BNP Paribas, BPER, Credit Agricole, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mediobanca, MPS and UniCredit, and on the other precisely from F2i’s Infrastructure Debt Fund 1, while another 130 million line was provided by the European Investment Bank.
The other two deals date back to early December 2022, when the fund financed on the one hand the fiber optic tlc operator Open Fiber, now controlled by CDP Equity and Macquarie Infrastructure, joining the pool of investors that at the end of 2021 had signed the agreement to refinance €7.2 billion of debt and to possibly disburse additional lines for another €2.8 billion (see here a previous article by BeBeez); and financed on the other hand the group specializing in renewable energy production facilities Falck Renewables (see here a previous article by BeBeez), now renamed Renantis, after it was delisted from the Milan Stock Exchange by the Infrastructure Investments Fund (IIF) managed by JP Morgan Asset Management. The latter, moreover, announced in recent days that it will merge its two European subsidiaries that develop, design, build, and operate renewable energy plants, namely precisely on the one hand the Italian Renantis and on the other the British Ventient Energy (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
“The announced transactions demonstrate F2i sgr’s ability to be a national and European scale operator also in the direct lending and infrastructure bond segment, as well as in equity where it manages assets of about 7 billion euros. Thanks to our well-established network, F2i has access to the most relevant transactions in the debt market to support infrastructure development,” commented Renato Ravanelli (in the picture), managing director of F2i sgr.
As a reminder, IDF1 is a fund dedicated to investments in Italy and Europe and qualifies as a product under Article 8 of the EU SFDR Regulation as it invests in direct loans and bonds of strategic infrastructure companies and promotes environmental and social features in compliance with good governance principles. Consistent with the fund’s ESG strategy, the newly announced financings contribute to promoting, on the one hand, widespread access to digital infrastructure by improving the competitiveness and quality of services in urban and suburban areas and, on the other hand, the efficient and sustainable use of raw materials and energy sources with a view to the sustainability of territories and the reduction of polluting emissions.
