Leading Spanish lender Santander has collaborated with two of Canada’s biggest pension funds on the creation of a new $2 billion renewable energy fund that has been launched today in London, England.
Jointly owned by Santander, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), Cubico Sustainable Investments is an investment vehicle for Santander’s clean energy efforts. Nineteen solar and wind assets, either completed or in the development phase and amounting to 1.4 GW, have been transferred by Santander into the fund, which will also steer monies towards water infrastructure projects.
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Assets contained within the portfolio are located in the U.K., Brazil, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Uruguay. “We have already built a strong pipeline of attractive assets to add to the platform,” confirmed Cubico’s new chief executive and former Santander executive Marcos Sebares.
Cubico Sustainable Investments will be owned equally by all three investors, and already has “significant capital to invest”, according to a statement.
Banco Santander S.A. senior executive vice president Juan Andres Yanes added that the creation of Cubico was the culmination of almost two years of focused work that had begun in 2013 with the identification of the sale opportunity and the preferred partners.
“We are pleased to start this new joint venture with Teachers’ and PSP Investments, two of the best-known pension funds in infrastructure investment,” he said. “We are confident that this venture represents a significant milestone for Santander to increase its footprint in the renewable and water infrastructure industry.”
