January 2020 - DIF Capital Partners

15 January 2020 | Sydney

DIF Capital Partners to invest in South Australian Schools PPP

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce that the TESA Education consortium, comprising DIF Infrastructure V, Tetris Capital, Sarah Construction and ISS Facility Services, has reached financial close on the South Australian PPP Schools (“SA Schools”) project in Adelaide, Australia.

The SA Schools project involves the design, build, finance and maintenance of two new schools located ~40km north and south of Adelaide, respectively. Both schools will accommodate 1,500 students and will cater for an additional 100 students with learning difficulties. The schools will include community hubs, performing arts centres, gyms, sporting facilities, libraries and entrepreneurial hubs.

The availability-based project with the AA+ rated South Australian Department of Treasury and Finance has a tenor of 30 years, including a 28-year operational period.

Design and construction works will be undertaken by Sarah Construction and the facilities will be maintained by ISS Facility Services. Both schools are expected to open before the start of the 2022 academic year.

Marko Kremer, Partner and DIF’s Head of Australasia added: “DIF is excited to invest in this new schools project, which will provide modern educational facilities in fast-growing regions of the South Australian community and thereby contribute to the socioeconomic development of the region.”

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €6.0 billion of assets under management across eight closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

DIF Infrastructure funds target equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, utilities and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams.
DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams.

DIF has a team of over 135 professionals, based in nine offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

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

10 January 2020 | Paris

DIF Capital Partners agrees to sell a portfolio of French PPPs

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce that DIF Infrastructure III (“DIF III”) has agreed to sell a portfolio of eight operational PPPs in France to 3i European Operational Projects Fund.

The portfolio consists of significant shareholdings in three educational facility projects, one multimodal train station project, one fire station project (consisting of 12 fire stations), two prison projects (consisting of three prison facilities each) and one sewer project. The projects are operational under availability-based and long term contracts, with the exception of the sewer concession project, and are all backed by strong public counterparties. Six of the eight projects were developed and acquired by DIF III as greenfield projects, and have been successfully managed into stable operational projects during DIF’s ownership.

Andrew Freeman, Head of Exits, said: “We are pleased with the sale of the portfolio that was successfully optimized throughout the life of the assets and exited via a competitive portfolio sales process. The sale represents a further underpinning of DIF’s long standing track record in the French infrastructure market and is an attractive exit for DIF III.”

DIF was advised by KPMG (M&A, Tax & Accounting), Allen & Overy (Legal) and Currie & Brown (Technical) and Egis (Technical for the sewer project).

Closing of the transaction is subject to receipt of certain customary project-counterparty approvals and antitrust consent.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €6.0 billion of assets under management across eight closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

DIF Infrastructure funds target equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, utilities and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams.
DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams.

DIF has a team of over 135 professionals, based in nine offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

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

7 January 2020 | Schiphol

DIF Capital Partners appoints a new Partner

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Anne Snel to Partner. Her promotion from Managing Director to Partner is in response to her personal contribution to the success and growth of the firm.

Anne Snel is Head of Risk, Legal and Compliance. She joined DIF in 2018 and was previously Head of Integrated Risk at Rabobank. She also worked at De Nederlandsche Bank as Senior Supervisor and interim Department Head. Before this, she held a variety of roles at ABN AMRO Bank over the course of her 16-year career there, including ~5 years as senior investment manager in the private equity team. Anne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Financial Administration from Michigan State University, a Master’s of Business Administration in General Management from the Erasmus University, and has attended executive education in General and Risk Management at both the London Business School and INSEAD.

Speaking on behalf of the other Partners, Managing Partner Wim Blaasse said, “We are pleased to see Anne being promoted to Partner. She has demonstrated her strength and suitability for leadership and this partner promotion furthermore underlines DIF’s focus on risk management and compliance. She will continue to play a leading role in the further build-out of the DIF platform”.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €6.0 billion of assets under management across eight closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

DIF Infrastructure funds target equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, utilities and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams.
DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams.

DIF has a team of over 135 professionals, based in nine offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

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