The Green Investment Group (GIG) of Australian financial services provider Macquarie has raised more than €1.6 billion ($1.94 billion) in investor commitments to be invested in a diversified portfolio of assets including solar and wind power projects across select regions, among other platforms. This exceeds the initial fundraising target of €1 billion ($1.2 billion).
The proceeds have been raised by Macquarie Green Investment Group Renewable Energy Fund 2 (MGREF2), a 25-year closed end fund to mainly invest in the construction of and already operational wind and solar projects in Western Europe, the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and in the region of Taiwan.
Managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), the new fund along with GIG will also explore opportunities for co-investment. A total of 32 investors comprising pension funds, local government pension schemes, insurers and sovereign wealth funds pooled in the money for MGREF2 with maximum grossed by the fund in Europe, followed by Asia Pacific and North America.
Macquarie shared the new fund has made 2 investments already, including one in acquiring 50% stake in a 268 MW portfolio of residential rooftop solar projects in the US. The predecessor of MGREF2, MGREF1 was dedicated to operational offshore wind.
Currently, MIRA has invested in 12.3 GW of green generation capacity globally, aiming to add more to reach its net zero emissions target by 2040.
"As custodians of the world's first dedicated operational offshore wind fund, we've been committed to developing a successor to harness deep institutional capital pools to help achieve net zero," said Head of MIRA EMEA, Leigh Harrison. "MGREF2 is the next step in this journey and we are delighted with the strong support the fund has received from our investors."
Recently, GIG launched its own European solar energy platform Cero Generation with a 8 GW strong development portfolio (see GIG Launches Cero With 8 GW Solar Development Pipeline).
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