HSH to finance acquisition of private-sector district heating network in Estonia
Hamburg/Kiel, December 19, 2018 - HSH Nordbank will provide international investment managers First State Investments (FSI) as the mandated lead arranger (MLA) with € 75 million as part of an acquisition loan totalling € 364 million.
FSI will use these funds to purchase 85 percent of the shares in Utilitas, the private-sector Estonian district heating network. Estonia’s largest producer of renewable energy builds and operates regional heating networks as well as the associated power generation plants and is present in eight Estonian cities, including the capital Tallinn, with more than 500 kilometres of district heating grid, 39 heating power plants as well as two biogas plants.
FSI is the Australian investment management branch of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia with offices in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region – it is world’s sixth-largest infrastructure manager with more than 20 years of experience in this sector.
“This transaction is important to us in two respects: It means we have successfully closed a finance deal in Estonia for the first time and we can add another district heating network to our portfolio. That is very encouraging also with a view to our planned follow-on business in this appealing and growing European infrastructure market,” said Dr Marcus Kleiner, Head of Infrastructure & Logistics at HSH Nordbank.
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