19 June 2019  |  Santiago

DIF opens office in Santiago (Chile)

DIF is pleased to announce that it has opened an office in Santiago, Chile. From Santiago DIF will target Latin America with an initial focus predominantly on Chile and Uruguay.

The office will be headed by Daniel Aninat, who is hired as a Managing Director. Daniel came from Scotiabank, where he was heading the Chilean corporate banking division. Before that he was head of project and acquisition finance for Santander in Chile. Daniel has a broad experience in the Latin American infrastructure and power sectors. Furthermore Luis Hinojosa, Senior Director in DIF’s Madrid office, will relocate to Santiago. Luis is with DIF since 2015 and has a broad infrastructure experience, including in different Latin American countries.

Wim Blaasse, Managing Partner at DIF: “Latin America is a large and fast growing infrastructure market, in which we see several interesting investment opportunities across all our target sectors. We are delighted with this next step for DIF and further expand our global office network to nine offices, enabling us to better source and manage projects locally, as well as continue to construct diversified portfolios.”

About DIF

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6 billion of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America, South America and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF Infrastructure V targets equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, regulated assets and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.
  • DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I targets equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.

DIF has a team of over 120 professionals, based in eight offices located in Schiphol (the Netherlands), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

Contact: Allard Ruijs, Partner; a.ruijs@dif.eu.

night time motorway sky shot
12 June 2019  |  Sydney

DIF to build Australian workers accommodation facility

DIF is pleased to announce that, together with its consortium partners, it has reached financial close on the Bay Village workers accommodation facility which will support the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG projects in Karratha, Western Australia.

The 15-year agreement includes the design, build, finance, operations and maintenance of a new 604-bed workers accommodation facility. Construction on the Bay Village facility will commence imminently, with operations expected to commence in mid-2020.

DIF Infrastructure V will be the 100% owner of the project, whilst design and construction works will be undertaken by Multiplex, and operations and maintenance services will be undertaken by Compass Group. The counterparties to the agreement are the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG projects, which are operated by Woodside, one of Australia’s largest natural gas producers.

BFIN (financial) and Corrs Chambers Westgarth (legal) advised the consortium. Financing was provided by Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Marko Kremer, Partner and DIF’s Head of Australasia added: “DIF is excited to be working with the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG projects to support their ongoing operations and growth plans. We are pleased to be involved with these Woodside-led projects, with LNG being an important solution to achieving a lower emissions future.”

About DIF

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6 billion of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF Infrastructure V targets equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, regulated assets and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.
  • DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I targets equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.

DIF has a team of over 120 professionals, based in eight offices located in Schiphol (the Netherlands), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

Contact: Allard Ruijs, Partner; a.ruijs@dif.eu.

4 June 2019  |  London

DIF acquires stake in Dublin Waste to Energy PPP project

DIF, through its most recent fund DIF Infrastructure V, is pleased to announce that it has closed the acquisition of a stake in the Dublin Waste to Energy PPP project (the “Project”). The Project is an operational waste to energy facility supported by a 45 year contract with Dublin City Council. DIF Infrastructure V acquired the stake from Macquarie’s Green Investment Group Limited (“GIG”), who remain a shareholder in the Project.

Located in Poolbeg, Dublin Port, the Project processes 600,000 tonnes of residual waste annually and generates electricity which is exported to Ireland’s national grid – sufficient to power 80,000 homes. The facility has been designed to provide highly efficient incineration and is classified as energy recovery in line with EU policy on waste. The Project is part of a wider Dublin regional waste management plan, which is aimed at reducing waste, maximizing recycling and generating energy from waste. The Project benefits from the Irish renewable energy feed-in tariff. The facility was constructed by Covanta who are also its long term operators.

Gijs Voskuyl, Partner at DIF, said “DIF is pleased to invest in the Dublin Waste to Energy Project, a well-managed and high-quality asset, which is expected to provide a stable return to our investors. As result of the investment, DIF further expands its footprint in the waste to energy sector, following the investment in Avertas Energy, an Australian waste to energy facility, alongside Macquarie in 2018. DIF is delighted to invest again in Ireland, partnering with GIG and Covanta, who are both very active and reputable investors in the waste sector”.

DIF was advised by Ashurst (Legal), PwC (Financial), Arup (Technical), SLR (Market) and Grant Thornton (Tax).   

About DIF

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6 billion of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF Infrastructure V targets equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, regulated assets and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.
  • DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I targets equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.

DIF has a team of over 120 professionals, based in eight offices located in Schiphol (the Netherlands), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

Contact: Allard Ruijs, Partner; a.ruijs@dif.eu.

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