24 April 2020  |  Schiphol

DIF Capital Partners closes refinancing Finnish district heating network

DIF Capital Partners is pleased to announce the closing of the refinancing of Loimua’s (formerly known as Elenia Heat) acquisition debt facilities.

DIF Capital Partners, together with its partners LPP Infrastructure and Aberdeen Standard Investments, acquired Loimua in July 2019 with DIF Infrastructure V (link to original press release). Loimua is the second largest private supplier of district heating in Finland, providing environmentally sustainable heating to residential, commercial and public sector customers. The company owns and operates 640 MW of heat production capacity across 16 networks, covering circa 500 kilometers and circa 4,600 supply points (85,000 end-users).

Through the refinancing of the acquisition facilities Loimua established a common terms multi tenor debt platform including long term bank debt and 10, 12, and 14 year private placement tranches from institutional debt providers, alongside working capital facilities for general and capex financing purposes. The refinancing further de-risks the company’s long term capital structure and provides operational flexibility to deliver growth in line with the business plan. The transaction was concluded at favourable terms and covenants, emphasizing that there is still strong support from debt providers for stable and sustainable businesses such as Loimua despite the recent capital market developments.

DIF Capital Partners and its partners were advised by DC Advisory (financial) and Shearman& Sterling (Legal).

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent infrastructure fund manager, with €6.7 billion of assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF Capital Partners 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 telecom, energy and transportation sectors.

DIF has a team of over 140 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; a.ruijs@dif.eu.

20 April 2020  |  Toronto

DIF Capital Partners invests in Canadian fiber optic networks build out

DIF Capital Partners, through its DIF Core Infrastructure Fund II (“DIF CIF II”), is pleased to announce that it has completed a majority investment into Valley Fiber Ltd (“Valley Fiber”) to build fiber-to-the-home (“FttH”) and fiber-to-the-business (“FttB”) networks in Manitoba, Canada.

Based in Winkler, Manitoba, Valley Fiber is a telecommunications infrastructure company that specializes in the development, construction and operations of fiber and fixed-wireless infrastructure for residential and commercial use. Valley Fiber has received support from municipal and federal levels of government in Canada. DIF Capital Partners’ investment will allow Valley Fiber to connect more than 15,000 homes and businesses to fiber over the next two years. The transaction contemplates a conservative capital structure which provides additional financial resiliency in the current environment.

Valley Fiber was incorporated in 2016 and has successfully built a presence in Southern Manitoba, constructing high quality telecommunications infrastructure to service the historically underserved communities. Valley Fiber currently operates in more than 20 municipalities in Manitoba. The transaction also includes the acquisition of 40 operating fixed-wireless towers.

“The Valley Fiber team is extremely excited to have found a long-term partner that shares the same values and vision of how to bring the best-in-class fiber and telecommunication infrastructure to the region. With the support from the Canadian government and our financial partner DIF Capital Partners, we look forward to usher in a new generation of economic development and diversity to Southern Manitoba” comments Hank Wall, CEO of Valley Fiber.

The transaction is the first investment for DIF CIF II and underlines the key strategic focus to invest in digital infrastructure. “We are pleased with our long-term investment into the Valley Fiber platform for the roll out of fiber in rural Canada. This is an excellent opportunity for DIF CIF II to invest in a high growth company with a strong management team and to further expand our presence into the fast-growing telecom infrastructure sector” comments Willem Jansonius, Head of DIF CIF.

DIF Capital Partners was advised by Agentis Capital (financial) and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg (legal).

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent infrastructure fund manager, with €6.7 billion of assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF Capital Partners invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy and transportation sectors.
  • 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 has a team of over 140 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

6 April 2020  |  Toronto

DIF Capital Partners sells its stake in Royal Jubilee Hospital

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce the sale of its stake in Royal Jubilee Hospital to its co-shareholder Innisfree by DIF Infrastructure III (“DIF III”).

Royal Jubilee Hospital is a PPP hospital located in Victoria, Canada and was DIF’s first PPP investment in North America. The project consists of the design, construction, financing, maintenance and operations of the hospital during 30 years from construction completion which was in December 2010. The facility includes 500 beds and provides inpatient services to medical/surgical patients and patients suffering from mental health and addiction issues.

Andrew Freeman, Head of Exits, said: “We are very pleased to have been able to complete another strong exit, underpinning the high quality and stable nature of our assets also during uncertain times.”

DIF was advised by DLA Piper (Canada) LLP (legal).

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €6.7 billion of assets under management across nine 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