Ardian is considering placing its stake in Germany’s EWE into a continuation fund, which would be one of the French asset manager’s first infrastructure continuation vehicles, four sources familiar with the situation said.

Teasers are expected to be distributed shortly for the continuation vehicle, whose size would be well above EUR 1bn, according to one of the sources.

Ardian bought a 26% stake in the German utility company in 2020 in a EUR 1.2bn deal through its Ardian Infrastructure Fund V.

Some EUR 200m of the fund’s stake in EWE was syndicated to co-investors including German insurer Talanx, with Ardian continuing to manage the stake in its entirety.

The acquisition was also partly funded with a EUR 680m holdco loan, which was refinanced with a private placement in 2021.

Other LPs in Ardian Infrastructure Fund V include the US pension funds Employees Retirement System of Texas and the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, as well as German asset manager YIELCO Investments’ second infrastructure fund, according to Infralogic data.

Sources noted that Ardian has been exploring options for its stake in EWE for months, including a continuation vehicle and a potential sale, with the former being the preferred option currently.

A continuation fund would allow Ardian’s fifth infrastructure fund to exit, while one source said it would also allow the manager to raise additional capital to fund future capex commitments by EWE.

Ardian’s acquisition in 2020 gave EWE an enterprise value of EUR 7.7bn. The utility recorded EUR 525m of EBIT in 2020, while it did not report a separate EBITDA figure at the time.

EWE has evolved into an energy group with diversified activities in energy, telecommunications and e-mobility over the past years.

In 2024, the group reported EUR 1.2bn of operating EBITDA, down by 23% compared to the previous year as revenues in its renewables unit and energy sales arm fell due to lower energy prices and lower volumes, according to the utility’s latest annual report.

As of June 2025, its renewable energies portfolio included onshore wind farms with total generation capacity of over 2.6 GW.

EWE, which is among Germany’s top 10 energy companies, also operates power grids and natural gas networks with a grid length totalling 143,700 kilometres, while in 2020 it established a joint venture with Deutsche Telekom to deploy broadband networks in rural areas of northwestern Germany.

Ardian previously raised a single-asset continuation vehicle for its French oil storage company Geosel in 2022 in a process run by Campbell Lutyens, which also allowed it to raise extra capital for the asset.

The French manager’s first-ever continuation fund for a private equity asset was raised in January 2025, to back its air conditioning company Syclef.

Although it has not often used continuation funds for its own assets, Ardian is itself a major investor in secondaries – both for infrastructure and private equity.

Ardian raised late last year around USD 5.2bn for its latest infrastructure secondaries vehicle, Ardian Secondary Fund IX Infrastructure (ASF IX), which is targeting USD 7bn.

The firm raised USD 30bn in January 2025 for the largest-ever private equity-focused secondaries fund, Ardian Secondary Fund IX.

Ardian has been busy fundraising for various other strategies in the last 12 months, closing its sixth flagship infrastructure fund at USD 20bn last October, with strong support from US investors.

In December, the French investment powerhouse launched a new evergreen fund to give professional investors access and diversified exposure to its global infrastructure and infrastructure secondaries platforms.

Continuation funds are becoming more popular among European infrastructure fund managers.

Meridiam recently secured EUR 2.2bn for its latest European continuation vehicle Meridiam Europe Core Fund, with Singapore’s GIC among the main investors in the fund.

German manager Palladio Partners has also launched a continuation vehicle for its stake in European rolling stock lessor Railpool, while EQT is also looking to roll over part of its stake in EdgeConneX into another continuation fund.

Ardian declined to comment.