By Mark McSherry — Abrdn announced it has provided £98 million of private placement debt to EnBW, one of the largest utility companies in Germany and Europe.

“Despite volatility on the public bonds market, EnBW was able to raise USD850m across multi-currency tranches including dollar, euro and sterling, demonstrating strong cross-regional demand from the private placement debt market,” said Abrdn.

“This should be encouraging to many other utility companies facing regular funding needs, as well as those keen to diversify their investor base.

“The transaction will support EnBW’s EUR12b capital expenditure programme over 2021-2025 with the majority of investment dedicated to renewables and electricity networks.

“The investment was made on behalf of Abrdn’s strategic clients, including Phoenix Group and Abrdn multi-sector private credit funds.”

Abrdn head of European private placements Albane Poulin said: “EnBW will continue to play a key role in the energy transition, and this will help them as they strive to achieve their goal to generate all electricity from renewables by 2030.

“Improving critical infrastructure such as EnBW’s electricity transmission and distribution grids, is essential to maintain security of supply.

“We are delighted to provide financing to support important infrastructure projects such as this, underpinning a key strategic priority for abrdn to grow our core capabilities in real assets.”

Manuel Dusina, Head of Infrastructure, Phoenix Group added: “Investing in line with our sustainability agenda is a critical component of our investment strategy, and we are delighted that we are able to assist EnBW with their transition to renewables and their journey to provide energy security.

“Core defensive regulated assets in jurisdictions outside of the UK continue to be a key element of our approach to diversification when building our portfolio.”