Aquila Capital, a Hamburg-headquartered clean infrastructure investment manager, is considering launching its first Asia-dedicated fund, a senior executive told Infralogic.

“We see interest in Asia from our European clients who agree there is an opportunity to expand our Asian capabilities,” said Lars Meisinger, head of client advisory international at Aquila Capital. He added that there is a limited number of infrastructure-related fund managers with dedicated Asian sleeves.

While Aquila Capital has engaged its existing investors in exploratory conversations for the fund, it has yet to decide on the target amount and launch timeline.

“2023 was a very difficult year for fundraising, so any new strategy will have to be carefully planned and launched in this context,” said Meisinger, adding that the firm is yet to begin cornerstone investor talks.

The firm, which manages EUR 14.7bn, will leverage on European capital for the Asian fund. It won’t exclude onboarding Asian investors, and will consider using a placing agent for the region.

The Asian fund, which could be an equity or a debt vehicle, will focus on renewables and battery storage in Northeast Asia, Meisinger said. The firm’s previous funds have had open-ended structures.

Aquila Capital’s open-ended European Balanced Renewables Fund (EBRF) has now crossed USD 600m in commitments, he said. The vehicle, launched in 2019, was seeded with a USD 50m cornerstone investment from Willis Towers Watson’s European Secured Income Fund. It has a target of EUR 1bn to EUR 1.5bn, Infralogic reported in March this year.

European clients may have high return assumptions for Asia, although the region’s developed OECD countries may not warrant much of a risk premium, Meisinger said.

First debt fund
​​​​​​​Aquila Capital is in the process of launching its first debt fund, focused on renewables, for which up to 30% will be allocated to Asia. Aquila has been holding conversations with possible cornerstones for the potentially open-ended vehicle, which is likely to launch next year.

In addition, Aquila Capital has already raised more than EUR 500m for its EUR 700m Aquila Capital Infrastructure Fund (ACIF), an open-ended infrastructure fund-of-funds.

Aquila Capital acts as the fund management arm of Aquila Group, a European renewables developer with 14.6 GW capacity under management across wind, solar PV, and hydropower.

In 2020, Aquila Group launched its Asian business, Aquila Clean Energy APAC, which manages a 2.7 GW portfolio of solar, wind, and battery assets across South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand from its Singapore headquarters.