Also: Future Planet Capital launches dedicated pension vehicle for UK high growth companies, and Aviva opens venture capital business to external investment.
Railpen has acquired a 25% stake in Verdis, a waste collection company based in the Nordic region.
The £35bn pension manager bought the stake from Cube Infrastructure Managers, which acquired the firm late last year. Railpen’s Lewis Vanstone, investment director, and Tim Grimstone, an investment manager, will sit on the Verdis board.
The waste company serves more than six million people across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, and is actively expanding its core services as well as investing a fleet of electric and biofuel-powered trucks.
Grimstone said: “Verdis represents an important addition to our Growth Infrastructure Portfolio, with it being the first in the Nordics and the environmental services sector. We have strong conviction on the future growth of Verdis given its critical role in the waste sector – an essential service and building block of the circular economy – and its leadership in vehicle fleet electrification.”
The acquisition follows similar infrastructure investments made by Railpen this year, including a 50% stake in renewable energy company AGR Power and a joint venture with GreenPower to develop an onshore wind project.
Future Planet Capital launches impact venture fund
Venture capital specialist Future Planet Capital has launched an impact-focused fund aimed at UK pension schemes.
The British Co-Investment Fund aims to invest up to £1bn in venture capital opportunities across the UK and is open to investment from private and public sector defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.
Local government pension schemes and the investment arm of Timpson Group have already agreed to invest in the fund’s first close, which aims to raise £150m by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
The fund is supported by Mobius Life, an institutional investment platform company, which will host Future Planet Capital’s “blended feeder fund” structure. The fund will hold liquid listed assets alongside venture capital investments to help schemes meet “fee and liquidity requirements”, the asset manager said.
Future Planet Capital plans to allocate capital towards opportunities emerging from university and government research centres, with a focus on artificial intelligence, engineering biology, quantum computing and semiconductors, as well as climate technologies and “wider impact-led areas”.
Aviva opens up VC business
Aviva Investors has added a venture capital (VC) offering to its real assets and private markets unit.
The asset manager is incorporating Aviva Ventures into its private markets team. This unit has been investing in venture capital on behalf of its insurance company parent for more than a decade.
The newly branded Aviva Investors VC and Strategic Capital team is led by Ben Luckett, managing director, and includes five full-time employees who have moved across from their existing roles.
Aviva Investors’ CEO Mark Versey said private markets were “severely underrepresented in the portfolios of UK defined contribution pension funds relative to global peers”.
Aviva is an active supporter of the Mansion House Compact and is also a member of the taskforce overseeing the development of the UK’s new National Wealth Fund. It has launched two long-term asset funds aiming to improve pension fund access to illiquid asset classes within private markets.
