Juncker Plan: SEK 900 million for investment in local infrastructure
The European Investment Bank (EIB i) has signed a SEK 900 million agreement to support investment in local infrastructure in the Nordic countries through the “Infranode I” investment platform. This agreement was made possible by the support of the Juncker Fund, the central pillar of the European Commission's Juncker Plan.
“The Nordic infrastructure market has a significant investment backlog and faces limited funding opportunities.” said Jan Vapaavuori, EIB Vice-President. “Many of these projects are relatively small, making it challenging for the EIB to directly support them. It is thanks to Infranode acting as local intermediary that we can lend our financial support here, in line with the Bank’s main objective: improving people’s lives through its investments. The EFSI guarantee is another important catalyst for our first ever long-term equity injection in a local platform in Sweden.”
Cecilia Malmström i, European Commissioner, said: "The Investment Plan plays an important role, and contributes to investments in infrastructure all over Europe. This agreement allows the Nordic countries to benefit even more from this. Europe needs investments - they boost growth and create jobs."
Infranode will address the lacking investments in this area by primarily targeting public and private small and mid-cap infrastructure companies and assets in the Nordics. Its focus will lie on regulated utilities, renewable energy, social and transport infrastructure projects.
“We are very pleased to get such strong support from institutional investors as the EIB, Folksam and KPA Pension. There is a gap between the need for infrastructure development and the public sector’s ability to invest" said Infranode co-founder and partner Christian Doglia. “With our 20 years plus investment horizon, we want to help close that gap by aligning long-term investors and the public sector in working towards a common goal”, said Infranode co-founder and partner Philip Ajina.
The “Infranode I” investment platform has now raised a total of SEK 3.35 billion for essential infrastructure investments in the Nordics. Other institutions who invested alongside the EIB include Folksam, KPA Pension and IMAS Foundation.
Background Information:
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. In 2016 alone, the Bank made available nearly EUR 1.7 bln in loans for Swedish projects in various sectors, including urban development, industry and research.
Infranode is a long-term Nordic infrastructure investment company founded in 2013. Infranode’s ambition is to become the leading sustainable business partner for the public sector in revitalizing and developing Nordic infrastructure. Infranode is an affiliate to Areim, an established Stockholm based real estate investment manager and investment advisor. Areim has a 10 year and SEK 50 billion real estate investment management track record and currently manages three value-add real estate funds with a reputable local and international institutional investor base.
The Investment Plan for Europe is one of President Jean-Claude Juncker i's top priorities. It focuses on boosting European investments to create jobs and growth by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects.
The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the central pillar of the Investment Plan. It provides a first loss guarantee, allowing the EIB to invest in more, often riskier, projects. The EFSI is already showing concrete results. The projects and agreements approved for financing under the EFSI so far are expected to mobilise close to EUR 169 billion in total investments and support some 387,000 SMEs across all 28 Member States.
In September 2016, President Juncker proposed to extend the EFSI by increasing its firepower and duration as well as reinforcing its strengths. You can find the latest EFSI figures by sector and by country here.
Press contacts:
European Commission (Brussels): Enda McNamara, +32 460 792 945, Enda.MCNAMARA@ec.europa.eu
European Commission (Stockholm): Johan Wullt, + 46 8 562 444 06, johan.wullt@ec.europa.eu