Palisade kicks off $1b raise for renewables platform Intera; eyes $7b
Wind farms, solar farms, battery storage – Palisade Investment Partners wants it all.
Intera Renewables houses Palisade’s stake in Townsville’s Ross River Solar Farm. AP
Street Talk understands the Sydney-based investor has kicked off meetings with institutional investors over the past week to build support for a $1 billion raise for its Intera Renewables platform, which counts superannuation heavyweights Aware Super and HESTA as backers.
Potential investors were told Intera has $2 billion worth of up-and-running assets and sees a pathway to $7 billion in the next three years against a backdrop of strong demand for renewable energy and electrification of legacy sectors such as transport and manufacturing.
Intera Renewables houses Palisade’s stakes in Townsville’s Ross River Solar Farm, South Australia’s Snowtown Wind Farm 2 and Tasmania’s Granville Harbour Wind Farm. Two other assets on the platform– South Australia’s Hallett Wind Farm and Victoria’s Macarthur Wind Farm – have long-term offtake agreements with AGL Energy.
Put together, that’s a 1 gigawatt portfolio with a $2 billion enterprise valuation.
The platform is in the same vein as Igneo Infrastructure Partners’ Atmos Renewables, Macquarie Asset Management’s newly announced Aula Energy and once-listed Tilt Renewables.
No selldown, only expansion
Palisade moved the five assets into Intera Renewables in March, wrapping them under common governance, management and financing structure. Ownership was split across five co-investors: the Palisade Renewable Energy Fund (PREF), Palisade’s Diversified Infrastructure Fund (PDIF), HESTA, Aware Super, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). Banks have been happy to lend to Intera, with CBA, ANZ, Westpac, ING, Bank of China, Mizuho and Mitsui providing financing.
The latest raise is being done through PREF, the leading shareholder in Intera. The proceeds would be put towards acquiring new assets or expanding the existing ones, with no sell down or liquidity event involved for existing PREF backers.
Potential investors are being reminded the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme announced in late November, which would underwrite 32 gigawatts of new renewables, in addition to total generation capacity of the National Electricity Market at about 65 gigawatts.
The home-grown infrastructure investor often competes with international players in auctions for local renewables assets. This time last year, its PDIF fund teamed up with Aware Super to buy a 49 per cent stake in the 528 megawatts Stockyard Hill Wind Farm near Ballarat. The seller, turbines giant Goldwind, had Lazard run a sale process.
Palisade has been around since 2007 and has a portfolio spanning stakes in assets such as Port of Portland, Gold Coast Light Rail and Sunshine Coast Airport. It has also seeded two offshoots. Palisade Impact has just bought Downer-backed waste management business Repurpose It while Palisade Real Assets has been chasing bioenergy plays UK.
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