Sumitomo Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Development Bank of Japan Inc., (DBJ), have established their first fund through Spring Infrastructure Capital Co., Ltd., a fund management company jointly established by the three companies. The Fund raises money from Japanese investors and finances and invests in offshore wind power projects overseas.
The Fund will acquire UK assets held by Sumitomo Corporation as seed assets, and this will be the first fund in Japan designed to invest in offshore wind power projects overseas. The Fund will seek to raise up to 30 billion yen.
The company was founded in July 2018 to provide institutional investors with opportunities to invest in renewable energy assets both inside and outside Japan.
The aim is to meet investors’ expectations by dispatching members experienced and knowledgeable in investment/financing in the renewable energy sector to the Company, where they will participate in running the infrastructure projects in which the Fund invests and thereby provides value to local communities.
The Company will also help meet investment needs from domestic investors and contribute to building infrastructure worldwide by developing mechanisms to funnel funds back into infrastructure projects, especially renewable energy projects.
Sumitomo Corporation is actively engaged in developing and running renewable energy projects worldwide, and it now possesses 1.4GW in generation capacity. The company will complete construction of these projects and then will sell to the Fund some of the assets that have begun stable operation, to achieve strategic asset replacement.
Additionally, SMBC has financed power plants with a total capacity of more than 10GW. In this particular project, the SMBC Group will be providing the knowledge and know-how it has cultivated heretofore to facilitate smooth operation of the Fund.
DBJ will be leveraging its investment experience in UK offshore wind power projects as it participates in managing the company. Because the Fund will be working to provide Japanese institutional investors with opportunities to invest in offshore wind power projects and other renewable energy projects and because the Fund will be helping Sumitomo Corporation accelerate activities in renewable energy projects inside and outside Japan, DBJ has decided to supply funding through the use of “Special Investment Operations”.
