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19 December 2017  |  Paris

DIF acquires 55% stake in French fiber project from Infravia

DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I (“DIF CIF I”) and Infravia are pleased to announce that they have completed the sale of Infravia’s 55% stake in the French fiber company ADTIM.

ADTIM operates a wholesale telecom network in the Ardèche and Drôme departments under a 25-year concession awarded in 2008, which is fully operational since 2011. In December 2016, ADTIM, together with its partners Axione, Bouygues E&S and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, were awarded the Fiber to the Home (FttH) concession in the region. This second project plans to realize 310,000 FttH connections in association with the public local authority Syndicat mixte ADN as part of France’s 2012 Ultra-Fast Broadband Plan, the nationwide plan to implement ultra-fast internet connections across the country by 2022.

Infravia and DIF CIF I had reached an agreement on the transaction in June 2017.

InfraVia has been advised in the process by the following parties: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (Legal), Lazard (M&A) and H3P (Financial).

About DIF

DIF is an independent and specialist fund management company, managing funds of approximately €4.6 billion across seven closed-end investment funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in the global infrastructure market through two differentiated and complementary strategies.

DIF CIF I targets small to mid sized infrastructure assets in the telecom infrastructure, rail, energy and utility sectors that generate stable and predictable cash flows that are contracted over the mid term with highly rated entities. The fund targets both greenfield and operational projects in Europe, North America and Australasia. The fund recently reached its final close at EUR 450m. DIF’s other funds target PPP / PFI / P3, regulated infrastructure assets and renewable energy projects in Europe, North America and Australasia.

DIF has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid, Toronto and Sydney.

For more information, please contact:

Willem Jansonius, Partner
E-mail: w.jansonius@dif.eu

Allard Ruijs, Partner
E-mail: a.ruijs@dif.eu

About Infravia Capital Partners

InfraVia Capital Partners is an investment manager dedicated to the infrastructure sector. InfraVia manages EUR 1.9bn across three infrastructures funds, positioned as long-term investors and dedicated to energy and infrastructure in Europe.

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29 June 2017  |  Paris

DIF to acquire 55% stake in French fiber project from Infravia

DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I (“DIF CIF I”) and Infravia are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement on the sale of Infravia’s 55% stake in the French fiber company ADTIM.

ADTIM operates a wholesale telecom network in the Ardèche and Drôme departments under a 25-year concession won in 2008, which is fully operational since 2011. In December 2016, ADTIM, together with its partners Axione, Bouygues E&S and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, won the Fiber to the Home concession in the region. This second project plans to realize 310,000 FttH connections in association with the public local authority Syndicat mixte ADN as part of France’s 2012 Ultra-Fast Broadband Plan, the nationwide plan to implement ultra-fast internet connections across the country by 2022.

Infravia and DIF CIF I expect to complete the equity transaction in September 2017.

About DIF

DIF is an independent and specialist fund management company, managing funds of approximately €4.2 billion across seven closed-end investment funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in the global infrastructure market through two differentiated and complementary strategies.

DIF CIF I targets small to mid sized infrastructure assets in the telecom infrastructure, rail, energy and utility sectors that generate stable and predictable cash flows that are contracted over the mid term with highly rated entities. The fund targets both greenfield and operational projects in Europe, North America and Australasia.

DIF’s other funds target PPP / PFI / P3, regulated infrastructure assets and renewable energy projects in Europe, North America and Australasia.

DIF has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid, Toronto and Sydney.

About Infravia Capital Partners

Infravia Capital Partners is an investment manager dedicated to the infrastructure and energy sectors which manages €1.7 billion of assets across three infrastructure funds. Infravia Capital Partners is positioned as a long-term investor across the infrastructure sectors in Europe including transportation, energy, utilities, social infrastructure as well as communications.

For more information, please contact:

Willem Jansonius, Partner
Email: w.jansonius@dif.eu

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

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20 March 2017  |  Paris

DIF and co-shareholders complete refinancing of French solar portfolio

DIF and its co-shareholders Caisse des Dépôts and Solairedirect complete refinancing of a 34MWp ground-mounted solar PV portfolio.

DIF, Caisse des Dépôts (“CDC”) and Solairedirect (together the “Sponsors”) have completed the refinancing of a portfolio of 4 operational ground-mounted solar PV projects located in the south-east of France, taking advantage of their strong operational track record since inception as well as the prevailing competitive debt markets. The projects, originally developed by Solairedirect were later partly sold to CDC and DIF as part of a portfolio. The portfolio is 35.25% owned by the DIF Infrastructure III fund, with CDC owning 49.75% and Solairedirect the remaining 15%. All 4 projects have been operational for more than 5 years.

Auxifip (part of the Crédit Agricole group), The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation acting as co-MLAs, together with BPIFrance Financement as participant, provided approximately EUR 145 million of senior debt facilities to refinance the existing debt. The refinancing provides for an extraordinary distribution to the shareholders in the portfolio, while still allowing for a strong cash yield from the projects over their remaining life.

The Sponsors were advised by Astris Finance (financial), Clifford Chance (legal – tax structure and financing) LPA-CGR (legal – corporate and project DD) and Noveo Finance (hedging).

The lenders were advised by Herbert Smith Freehills (legal), OST (technical), Deloitte (model audit) and MARSH (insurance).

For DIF in France, this follows the refinancing in 2016 of 2 portfolios of solar PV assets of 31.2MWp and 20.1MWp.

DIF Profile

DIF is an independent and specialist fund management company, managing funds of approximately EUR 3.5 billion. DIF invests in infrastructure assets that generate long term stable cash flows, including PPP/ P3, renewable energy and other core infrastructure assets in Europe, North America and Australia.
DIF has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid, Toronto and Sydney.

For more information, please contact:

Christopher Mansfield, Partner
Email: c.mansfield@dif.eu

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

solar panels in a field
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24 January 2017  |  Paris

DIF completes the acquisition of a stake in the French A63 toll road

DIF Infrastructure IV is pleased to report that it closed the acquisition of a 9.22% stake in the A63 project, following the announced signing of the transaction almost a year ago.

The shareholding was acquired from Colas Sud Ouest and Spie Batignolles, two French construction companies that were part of the original design and building consortium. The transaction had been announced in February last year but remained subject to a number of conditions precedent, including third party consents.

The project is a 40-year toll concession to design, build, finance, operate and maintain an upgraded 104km section of the A63 highway between Salles and Saint-Geours-de-Maremne in southwest France. The project was fully commissioned in November 2013, seven months ahead of plan. The project’s senior debt was successfully refinanced with long term debt in June 2015.

DIF Profile

DIF is an independent and specialist infrastructure fund management company, managing funds of approximately €3.3 billion. DIF invests in infrastructure assets that generate long term stable cash flows, including PPP / PFI / P3, renewable energy assets and other core infrastructure assets in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF has offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid, Toronto and Sydney.

For more information, please contact:

Paul Nash, Partner
Email: p.nash@dif.eu

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