NZ’s Infratil To Invest in Renewable Platform In Singapore

New Zealand-based investment firm Infratil is investing $233m in a renewable energy development platform in Singapore. The new platform will be called Gurīn Energy.

Infratil CEO Jason Boyes said that “this is the 4th such platform Infratil has established to cover global growth of the sector. Infratil will own the business in partnership with the management team of Gurīn Energy. Infratil has committed US$233m for development. US$100m of that commitment is in the form of support for letters of credit to be provided by 3rd party financiers for projects.

Gurīn Energy will invest in the development of wind and solar PV energy projects and storage solutions across Asia, including Southeast Asia, North Asia and India. Gurīn Energy is rapidly progressing an initial pipeline of projects of 500 MW at various stages of development in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan”.

The platform is currently developing an initial project pipeline with 500MW of total capacity.

Gurīn Energy will be led by Assaad W. Razzouk as CEO.

Assaad W. Razzouk is a Lebanese-British clean energy entrepreneur. He is a director of the Reneum Institute, which is a not-for-profit focused on digitising and democratising renewable energy. He was formerly Chairman and CEO of Sindicatum Renewable Energy, a clean energy company headquartered in Singapore and focused on renewable energy in Asia.

Through Trustpower and then Tilt Renewables, Infratil was an early investor in wind powered generation in New Zealand and Australia, resulting in $2,150 million of capital expenditure, building out 1,106MW of capacity. The firm recently exited the investment with a $2 billion realisation.

The firm is also a key investor in Vodafone New Zealand, Wellington Airport, Longroad Energy and other key infra projects in the region. The move into Singapore, and through that, many other Asian markets, is one of the furthest moves the firm has made from its home country, and points to just how attractive solar growth is currently for investors across the world.