Nuveen Infrastructure invests in £1bn European projects loan portfolio

Nuveen’s infrastructure arm has made a significant risk transfer (SRT) investment tied to a £1.1bn (€1bn) European projects loan portfolio managed by NatWest Bank. 

NatWest said it executed the £1.1bn own-asset securitisation deal with funding from Nuveen Infrastructure and Christofferson Robb & Company to allow the bank to recycle capital and increase lending to the renewable-energy and energy-transition sectors.

Nuveen’s investment, which is being made via the Energy Transition Enhanced Credit II strategy (ETEC II), is Nuveen Infrastructure’s fourth SRT investment to date, and the third in the manager’s ETEC II,  aiming to finance the energy transition in the UK and Europe.

The £1.1bn NatWest Bank loan portfolio includes over 35 project finance loans across eight European countries. 

Nuveen said the assets have an installed capacity of more than 9GWs and cover key elements of the energy transition, including solar photovoltaic, offshore and onshore wind farms as well as other technologies including energy from waste, bioenergy, hydro and smart meters.

Claudio Vescovo, MD and head of European energy transition credit funds at Nuveen Infrastructure, said the investment continues to support the firm’s plan to offer investors the chance to participate in the energy transition whilst “aiming to deliver sustainable and enhanced returns”. 

Vescovo added: “Our investors will now benefit from over 200 loans across a broad range of European energy transition infrastructure projects and Nuveen’s 30-year experience in pioneering the infrastructure needs of a changing world. 

“We believe now is a strong opportunity for investing in energy transition credit, the strategy benefits from current interest-rate environment as well as the first-mover advantage we have built on certain investment tools like SRTs.”

To date, Nuveen’s $33.5bn (€30.7bn) Infrastructure arm has invested in over 300 energy transition loans across 10 European countries, backing over 1,500 renewable energy assets with a combined capacity exceeding 18GW.

Alberto Abascal, MD of project finance at NatWest, said: “Renewable lending is a core business for the group. Given our market leading position and stated climate purpose, this is an important transaction to help the business efficiently recycle our capital to allow us to continue to grow and support our clients with the significant volumes required in the sector.” 

David Fitoussi, MD and head of European origination at Christofferson Robb & Company, said: “We respect NatWest as a renewable energy project finance lender and are delighted to bring this exposure to this portfolio to our investors, which they would otherwise find inaccessible.”

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