PiP acquires onshore wind farm assets

The Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PiP), developed by UK pension funds to boost their access to infrastructure assets, has bought a portfolio of onshore wind farms from Scottish Enterprise Partners (SEP) for £50 million.

The portfolio of wind farms consists of 64 turbines located across the UK and Ireland, including five wind farm investments made by the Environmental Capital fund (ECF), a specialist infrastructure fund managed by SEP. The purchase will complement PiP’s existing wind technology assets.

A PiP spokesman commented on the acquisition: “We are delighted to have acquired this portfolio as it further provides our pension scheme investors with long term, inflation-linked cash flows to be used to help meet their pension obligations.” For SEP, Peter Bachmann, a director in its technology infrastructure team, commented: “Over the last four years, we have added significant value to the portfolio through active management and a hands-on approach. We believe this is the appropriate time for our fund to exit and we wish PiP success in the future.”

The PiP was founded in 2012 to help UK pension funds make long-term investments in infrastructure, and it has operated as an asset manager since 2016, when it launched a multi-strategy infrastructure fund. It has now exceeded its initial funding objective by reached almost £750 million in investment from seven pension funds.