Ely Place Partners Limited (Ely Place) has acted as exclusive adviser to a seller in a GBP107 million secondary sale of a single fund position in BlackRock Renewable Income UK Fund (BRIUK) to funds managed by London LGPS CIV Ltd (London CIV), a company that manages UK Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) assets.
BRIUK is a renewables infrastructure fund managed by BlackRock and invested into a diverse portfolio of 48 wind and solar projects across the UK. The Global Renewable Power platform has invested directly in over 300 projects globally, including onshore wind, offshore wind and solar photovoltaic projects.
Established in 2015 as one of eight LGPS asset pooling companies, London CIV manages more than GBP11.2 billion of assets. The single fund position in BRIUK was acquired by LCIV Renewable Infrastructure Fund, a fund established by London CIV to invest in renewable infrastructure funds with a focus on renewable energy infrastructure assets, investing in both greenfield and brownfield assets including generation, transmission, distribution and enabling assets.
Ely Place acted as the exclusive financial adviser to the seller, running a competitive process. Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP acted as the seller’s legal counsel.
Daniel Roddick, Founder of Ely Place, says: “We are delighted to have closed this successful transaction for our client to facilitate the desired reallocation of its portfolio. While the low risk, cash yielding and long-term profile of the fund may be well suited for pension funds and other institutions with longer term liabilities, the transaction did not represent a typical fund acquisition for most secondary buyers. We were therefore required to run a highly tailored and focused process, targeting investors that are not usually active in the secondaries market.”
Vanessa Shia, Head of Private Markets at London CIV, says: “London CIV are delighted to have closed on our first secondary transaction in our Renewable Infrastructure Fund. This investment has given us the opportunity to immediately deploy capital into a mature portfolio of renewable energy assets which are already cash generating, offering our clients an immediate return on their investment”.
Ely Place is a specialist adviser in alternative assets. It assists PE, credit, infrastructure and venture GPs raise capital from institutional investors, and acts as a specialist adviser on secondary and co-investment transactions. In addition, the team offers GP advisory services including fundraising strategy, documentation, presentation support and investor relations.
