Infracapital successfully closes largest ever co-investment process into Zenobē

Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc, has successfully closed a co-investment process in Zenobē, providing the opportunity for a consortium of Infracapital’s strategic LPs, including Mubadala and Pantheon, to invest into a high-quality asset. 

“This marks a significant milestone for the Infracapital platform as it represents the largest co-investment raised by an Infracapital fund to date. It reiterates Infracapital’s ability to source high-quality assets benefiting from secular trends in decarbonisation of transport and battery storage” says Infracapital’s Head of Capital Formation and Investor Relations, Latifa Tefridj-Gaillard.  

Since Infracapital’s initial investment in 2020, Zenobē has grown to establish itself as being at the forefront of two increasingly important industries. Zenobē currently supports more than 1,000 electric vehicles worldwide and has worked with operators to deploy vehicles in over 75 depots. By 2026, Zenobē aims to support 4,000 electric buses, trucks and commercial vehicles on the road. The company also has 430MW of contracted grid-scale battery storage in the UK in operation or under construction, including its landmark 100MW battery storage asset at Capenhurst, Cheshire. 

Zenobē was the third investment made by Infracapital Greenfield Partners II in 2020, which continued the strategy of IGP I of investing in the later stage development, construction and expansion of projects and companies across a variety of essential and sustainable infrastructure sectors in Europe. Following this transaction, Infracapital continues to be joint majority shareholder with KKR following its recent £600 million investment into the business. 

Andy Matthews, Head of Greenfield at Infracapital, said: “I am delighted to announce that we have successfully completed the co-investment process for Zenobē. Zenobē has already made significant strides towards establishing itself as a market leader, and our latest investment into Zenobe through a co-investment process demonstrates our ongoing commitment to support businesses which are at the forefront of shaping a more sustainable future through partnerships with leading investors such as Mubadala and Pantheon.” 

Saed Arar, Executive Director of Traditional Infrastructure at Mubadala, said: “We are pleased to be part of this consortium of investors led by Infracapital providing further growth capital to Zenobē. The partnership underscores the role Mubadala plays in supporting innovative and expanding companies such as Zenobē, which is playing a critical part in the energy transition. We believe that the decarbonisation of the transport sector and battery storage have significant roles to play in our net zero future, and we look forward to supporting Zenobē as it scales its business globally in both these areas.” 

Media enquiries

For further information, please contact:

Teneo
Tom Murray / Colette Cahill
E: Infracapital@teneo.com
T: +44 7342 882 262

About Infracapital

Infracapital invests in, builds and manages a diverse range of essential infrastructure to meet the changing needs of society and support long-term economic growth. We take an active role in all of our investments, whether nascent or large, to fulfil their potential and ensure they are adaptable and resilient. Our approach creates value for our investors, as we target investments with the scope for stable and sustainable growth. Our portfolio companies work closely with the communities where they are based, to the benefit of all stakeholders. Infracapital is well positioned to deliver the significant investment required to help build the future. The founder-led team of experienced specialists has worked with more than 60 companies around Europe and has raised and managed over €7.8 billion of client capital across six funds.  Infracapital is part of M&G Plc, an international savings and investments business, managing money for around 5 million retail customers and more than 800 institutional clients in 28 markets. Total assets under management are £342 billion (as at 31 December 2022).

https://www.infracapital.co.uk/

About Zenobē

Zenobē is an EV fleet and grid-scale battery storage specialist, headquartered in the UK.  The company began operations in 2017 with three founders and has over the past 6 years increased its staff to >230 FTEs with a wide range of leading skills including electrical engineering, software development, computer sciences and financing.  It now operates in Europe and Australasia and is expanding into North America. Zenobē has 430MW of battery storage in operation or under construction with another 1.2GW of projects in advanced development in the UK which equates to circa 20% market share forecast by 2026. It has around 25% market share of the UK EV bus sector and c.1000 electric vehicles supported globally. The company is the largest owner and operator of EV buses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.  

Zenobe’s services are supported by market leading financing capability. This has included completing and drawing down against the Fleet private placement in February 2022 which raised over £240 million long term debt for the financing of Fleet customers, principally bus operators in the UK, over up to 16 years. This also included the financing of grid-scale batteries completed in February 2023 which raised £635 million of debt including an accordion for the development of Zenobē’s grid-scale battery storage assets in Scotland.

For more information, please visit www.zenobe.com/ or follow on LinkedIn.

About Mubadala Investment Company

Mubadala Investment Company is a sovereign investor managing a global portfolio, aimed at generating sustainable financial returns for the Government of Abu Dhabi.  

Mubadala’s $276 billion (AED 1015 billion) portfolio spans six continents with interests in multiple sectors and asset classes. We leverage our deep sectoral expertise and long-standing partnerships to drive sustainable growth and profit, while supporting the continued diversification and global integration of the economy of the United Arab Emirates.     

For more information about Mubadala Investment Company, please visit: www.mubadala.com