A Swiss fund house cut itself loose from Credit Suisse right before the Swiss bank's asset management troubles surfaced publicly. The boutique is aiming for the big leagues of infrastructure.
The sums keep piling up for Roland Doerig (pictured below) and Dominik Bollier, the duo at the helm of Zurich-based Energy Infrastructure Partners. EIP bought 49 percent of Munich-based renewable energy platform Baywa r.e. for 530 million euros ($629 million) in March.
On Tuesday, the fund house said it closed fundraising for its European infrastructure fund at more than 1 billion euros, from more than 40 institutional investors in Europe and Asia. EIP moved out of Credit Suisse last year and took up residence on Zurich's tony Paradeplatz – across the square from the Swiss bank's headquarters.
Swiss Pension Fund Money
The seven-year-old boutique grew in size thanks to new assets from CSA, a 1.7 billion Swiss franc ($1.86 billion) asset group owned by Credit Suisse which invests Swiss pension fund money in energy infrastructure. On behalf of CSA, the fund, EIP is a sizable shareholder in the Swiss utility Alpiq and the high-voltage-network Swissgrid.
EIP's partners are thinking of wider Europe, as Doerig told finews.com: the Finma-licensed investment manager is in the process of parlaying its Swiss investment expertise for direct infrastructure investments globally.
Asia, U.S. Focus
Doerig and Bollier are thinking big for a new fund, targeted to Swiss and global institutional investors, with a 4 billion to 6 billion euro target volume. Its focus will be Europe and investment grade facilities in both North America and Asia-Pacific.
The fledgling boutique's success – not to mention prominent offices a stone's throw from upscale café and chocolate shop Spruengli – contrasts with Credit Suisse's problems in asset management. The bank is untangling a $10.1 billion line of funds co-managed with Greensill.
Besides a branch in fund hub Luxembourg, EIP has thus far managed its investments from Switzerland. The partners are deliberating hiring local know-how in Asia as well as in the U.S. as part of the global push.
Timely Emancipation
EIP was born in 2014 as a joint venture with Credit Suisse as the majority shareholder. The boutique cut itself loose at the end of last year – in other words, shortly before Greensill imploded for the Swiss bank.
«Without independence, it wouldn't be possible to fully exploit the market potential globally,» Doerig said in November when the spin-off was disclosed. It is now eyeing New York and Singapore as next stops and will house up to 50 employees in the Paradeplatz headquarters – soon being refurbished to EIP's specifications.
