• Edmond de Rothschild presents Pearl Infrastructure Capital S.C.A., RAIF (hereinafter referred to as “Pearl Infrastructure”), its new private equity fund, in partnership with the Pearl Advisory management team.
  • This investment strategy will have a positive environmental impact for European environmental infrastructure and will address the challenges currently posed by environmental and energy transition and the circular economy.
  • Pearl Infrastructure welcomes as strategic investors the European Investment Bank, under the Juncker Plan, and Banque des Territoires.

Edmond de Rothschild and Pearl Advisory announce the first closing of Pearl Infrastructure, a fund specialising in European environmental infrastructure against a backdrop of energy and environmental transition (investment in majority equity interests alone), with subscriptions worth EUR 162m from a diversified range of institutional investors.

Pearl Infrastructure is receiving financial support of EUR 30m each from two strategic investors, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), alongside other French and European institutional investors and the Edmond de Rothschild Group. The EIB’s contribution falls under the European Fund for Strategic Investments, also known as the Juncker Plan.

Pearl Infrastructure has been created for two reasons: (i) to respond to the increased financing needs of manufacturers and local authorities, which must upgrade and optimise crumbling infrastructure; and (ii) to satisfy the EU’s growing regulatory constraints in the environmental field.

Johnny El Hachem, CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity, said: “Historically, our Group has been active in the European infrastructure sector. Fully in keeping with our convictions and expertise, our strategic initiative via Pearl Infrastructure is designed to support the sustainable transformation of companies in the long term, fostering better management of their resources, which will enable them to become more competitive.”

EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle explained: “The EIB – the EU bank – has made climate action one of its key strategic priorities. The creation of the Pearl fund demonstrates that the level of financing required to fund the energy transition makes alliances between public and private investors a necessity.”

“Banque des Territoires wished to boost its capacity for lending in support of energy and environmental transition in the water, waste management and recycling sectors. Pearl Infrastructure will invest in projects coming under the major pillars of France’s environmental policy as local authorities and manufacturers will now have to face the challenge of deploying and replacing this infrastructure in all regions concerned. Through this commitment and as a strategic investor in the fund, Banque des Territoires will step up the pace of its investment in support of the transformation of environmental infrastructure and promote more efficient use of resources”, said Philippe Leroy, Director of Investment in Energy and Environmental Transition at Banque des Territoires.

Labelled TEEC (Energy and Environmental Transition for the Climate)[1] according to the criteria of the Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition of France, Pearl Infrastructure is firmly committed to a responsible, long-term investment approach. The launch of this unprecedented fund also reflects the commitment made by the Edmond de Rothschild Group in support of responsible investment, a commitment with an overall performance target that is not exclusively financial, aligning the creation of social, environmental and economic value – the three pillars of sustainable development.

Jean-Christophe Guimard, Managing Director of Pearl Advisory, said: “Pearl Infrastructure has an experienced team of established professionals coming from the environmental utilities sector, each with more than 25 years’ experience in renewable energy, waste recycling or water cycle management. Our team of nine (expected to be 15 by the end of the year) has a unique talent for investing in projects in Europe and optimising their economic and environmental value by creating synergies between the energy, waste and water sectors.”

With a project pipeline that has taken over a year to put together, the team is now ready to deploy the fund. Pearl Infrastructure is targeting 12-15 assets representing equity investments of EUR 15-40m in special purpose vehicles centred mainly on three segments (water, waste management, and renewable energy production). These are chiefly greenfield but also early brownfield assets based on mature technologies. With their unique origination capacity thanks to privileged access to operators, manufacturers and municipalities, the assets invested in will all contribute to meeting the challenges of climate change and the circular economy.

Pearl Infrastructure aims to raise total commitments of EUR 250m by the end of 2019.

[1] The TEEC label is set to change and will become the “Greenfin” label