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18 July 2023  |  Helsinki

DIF Capital Partners leads €250 million+ funding round to expand Valoo’s Finnish fibre rollout

Investment will bring fibre connectivity to 300,000 Finnish households

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce that it is leading a debt and equity funding round worth in excess of €250 million for Valoo (Adola Oy), which will help it expand its optical fibre rollout to underserved regions and municipalities in Finland. DIF’s equity investment is made through its CIF III fund. The funding is a follow-up to the initial investment made by DIF’s CIF I fund which supported the first part of the growth trajectory of the company.

While DIF acts as the lead investor, the funding round is also backed by Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) and other investors. Senior debt has been provided by a banking group of SEB, NORD/LB and NIBC.

The funding will allow delivery of long-awaited high-speed fibre connectivity to areas that to date have had to rely mainly on mobile connectivity for internet access. The package will bring fibre to over 300,000 households and secure close to 1,000 jobs within the company and the wider market.

Valoo builds and operates fibre-optic networks across Finland. It does not charge customers for the construction of network connections to their homes, instead basing its business model on long-term customer relationships to provide internet services.

Valoo is set to continue its evolution into Finland’s leading platform for fibre connectivity, thanks to its expanding footprint and a strong national brand. The investment will also help to create the conditions for a future wholesale fibre access market in Finland, strengthening consumer choice. This will allow multiple operators to connect to their consumers through a single infrastructure.

DIF Capital Partners is an independent global infrastructure fund manager and a leading investor in optical fibre rollouts, having funded major projects in Canada, Germany, France, the UK and the USA among others.

“Our follow-up investment in Valoo enables it to connect a much larger number of underserved areas in Finland to fibre broadband infrastructure,” says Willem Jansonius, Partner and Head of CIF Investments at DIF Capital Partners.

“Finnish households have long struggled to access state-of-the-art broadband connectivity, especially outside of major urban areas. That shortfall was highlighted during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic. This investment will provide a significant improvement to those people’s and communities’ ability to work and participate in the global digital economy.”

“DIF’s investment in Valoo further underscores our position as a major investor in the Finnish market and our continued focus on digital infrastructure across Europe and North America. It’s also a vote of confidence in the successful transformation of Valoo’s business over recent years.”

 

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with ca. EUR 16 billion of AUM. DIF was founded in 2005 and has built a leading position in managing mid-market investments, primarily in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF follows two strategies: its traditional DIF funds invest in lower risk mid-sized infrastructure projects and companies in the energy transition (incl. renewables) and utilities sector, as well as PPPs and concessions. The firm’s CIF funds invest in small to mid-sized companies that will thrive in the new economy. These companies are typically active in the digital, energy transition and sustainable transportation sector.

With a team of over 225 professionals in 11 offices, DIF Capital Partners offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities. DIF is located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.

For more information, please visit www.dif.eu

 

Contact DIF Capital Partners: press@dif.eu

Valoo
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25 May 2022  |  Helsinki

DIF Capital Partners to grow its district heating and energy services business platform Loimua by acquiring Pilke Energia

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce that its Finnish district heating and energy services business platform Loimua Oy (formerly known as Elenia Heat) has agreed to acquire Pilke Energia and its subsidiaries from Lahti Energia.

Pilke Energia owns and operates biomass boilers with a capacity of 48MW across two sites in the municipality of Kärkölä, South of Finland. The company’s main responsibility is to produce energy for a local wood product company, Koskisen Oy.

Loimua’s CEO Matti Tynjälä says: “Koskisen will be a significant new customer for our industrial-scale energy services business. Renewable energy and its production serve the customer’s needs and the companies’ carbon neutrality goals in a great way. Loimua’s experience in producing renewable energy supports new cooperation in meeting Koskinen’s energy needs”.

DIF and its partners were advised by Avance (legal) and Deloitte (tax and accounting).

About Loimua

DIF Capital Partners, together with its partners Local Pensions Partnership Investments and abrdn, 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 640MW of heat production capacity across 16 networks, covering circa 500 kilometers and circa 4,600 supply points (85,000 end-users).

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent investment manager, with ca. EUR 11 billion in assets under management across ten closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in infrastructure companies and assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Australia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF CIF funds, of which DIF CIF III is the latest vintage, target equity investments in small to mid-sized core-plus infrastructure companies in the telecom, energy transition, and transportation sectors.
  • Traditional DIF funds, of which DIF Infrastructure VI is the latest vintage, target core infrastructure equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and energy transition projects (incl. renewable energy).

DIF Capital Partners has a team of over 190 professionals, based in eleven offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney, and Toronto. For more information please visit www.dif.eu.

Contact: Thijs Verburg, t.verburg@dif.eu.

 

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24 November 2021  |  Helsinki

DIF Capital Partners to acquire Plugit, a leading Finnish EV charging infrastructure company

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”), a leading global independent infrastructure investment manager, is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to acquire a 71% stake in Plugit Finland Oy (“Plugit”), a leading EV charging infrastructure company in Finland, through DIF CIF II (the “Fund”).

Founded in 2012, Plugit has become one of the largest EV charging infrastructure companies operating in the Finnish market. It has an installed base of ca. 4k charge points, has provided services to ca. 300 business customers to date and employs ca. 60 people. Plugit delivers and operates charging infrastructure projects for businesses and public sector organisations. It provides complete turnkey solutions, including design, hardware provision, operations, maintenance and end-to-end software. Plugit also offers a fully-funded Charging-as-a-Service (“CaaS”) product, where it funds the upfront capex and owns the EV charging infrastructure that it installs, in return for fixed availability-based lease payments from customers.

Supported by DIF, Plugit will expand its CaaS product and plans to build-out the amount of infrastructure that it funds and owns. The CaaS product addresses a key obstacle for Plugit customers as it removes the hurdle of them having to fund high capex amounts upfront and enables customers to transfer technology and operational responsibilities to an experienced player in the sector.

The management team will continue to remain invested in the company.

Willem Jansonius, Partner and Head of Investments for the DIF CIF strategy, says: “DIF believes that the electrification of transportation will play a critical role in reducing carbon emissions. We are excited to invest in such a well-established EV charging company, in order to speed up the rollout of charging infrastructure across Finland and abroad. We look forward to working with a highly experienced management team to accelerate Plugit into the next phase of its growth.”

Tommi Saarela, CEO of Plugit, adds: “We are excited about this unique opportunity to accelerate, our already fast and profitable growth, even further in the area of e-mobility. Partnering with DIF will enable us to meet our strategic objective of ten folding our business by 2025. DIF will provide us, not only the growth equity, but substantial financial resources enlarging and scaling up our CaaS services in Finland and other markets.”

Plugit was advised by Krogerus (legal) and PwC (M&A). DIF was advised by Avance (legal), Improved (M&A), Boston Consulting Group (commercial), Deloitte (financial) and DNV (technical).

Closing of the transaction is expected to take place before 2021YE.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent investment manager, with more than €9.0 billion in assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in infrastructure companies and assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized economic infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy transition, and transportation sectors.
  • Traditional DIF funds, of which DIF Infrastructure Fund VI is the latest vintage, target equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and (renewable) energy projects.

DIF Capital Partners has a team of over 170 professionals, based in ten offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney, and Toronto. For more information please visit www.dif.eu.

Contact:

Allard Ruijs, IR & BD
Email: a.ruijs@dif.eu