Piramal Enterprises, Canadian pension fund board set up $600 mn renewable energy trust

Piramal Enterprises Tuesday said it has signed an initial pact with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to co-sponsor a USD 600 million renewable energy-focused infrastructure investment trust (InvIT). "With an initial corpus of USD 600 million( about Rs 4,162 crore), and the option to scale further, the InvIT would seek to acquire up to 1.5-2 GW of stable and cash generating renewable assets on a hold-to-maturity basis, with a firm focus on diversification of both asset type as well as off-taker profile," Piramal Enterprises said in a release. 

As per the release, both Piramal Enterprises and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will act as co-sponsors of the proposed InvIT and hold up to 75 per cent of the units.

CPPIB has committed USD 360 million and holding up to 60 per cent while Piramal Enterprises has committed USD 90 million and holding 15 per cent.

The InvIT would seek to raise capital from other like-minded investors for the remaining 25 per cent. 

In the interim and prior to its launch, Piramal Enterprises and CPPIB will jointly warehouse seed assets for the proposed InvIT. Piramal would act as the sole investment manager as well as project manager for the proposed InvIT, the release added. 

Piramal Enterprises has presence in financial services, pharmaceuticals and healthcare insights and analytics. Its consolidated revenues were over USD 1.9 billion in 2018-19.

CPPIB is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments.