Breaking news: EQT delays first close for next infra funds

Breaking News 29 November

Breaking news: EQT delays first close for next infra funds

EQT Infrastructure is eyeing the first closes of its flagship and core funds, as the manager has had to push back its fundraising timelines. 

The Stockholm-headquartered manager is currently holding a series of rolling closes for its EQT Infrastructure Fund VI (EQT VI), sources said. The rolling closes will continue into Q1, with a formal first close due to be wrapped up around March. 

EQT had been eyeing a first close of its sixth flagship fund towards year end when it launched the vehicle in August. 

However, sources spoken to pointed to the “denominator effect” putting pressure on investors’ allocations as a reason for the first close timeline being pushed back. 

Many LPs are waiting to invest in the fund out of their renewed 2023 infrastructure allocations, although the rolling closes enable investors that wish to do so to commit to the fund at an earlier stage, the sources said. 

Meanwhile EQT’s core infrastructure fund is looking to raise between EUR 2bn and EUR 2.5bn at first close by year-end. It is then eyeing a final close at its EUR 5bn target around the middle of the year. 

The manager had earlier in the year been eyeing a first close in September, and a final close by the end of the year. 

EQT VI was launched in August this year with a EUR 20bn target. The fund will follow the same strategy as its predecessor, targeting opportunities in midstream energy, power, utilities, environment and telecoms across Europe and North America.  

Meanwhile, its core strategy has the same geographic remit but targets the lower end of the risk-return spectrum, aiming to hold assets over a longer term of 15 to 25 years. 

According to one source close to the situation, EQT views its risk/return strategy for the core fund as falling between value add and passive core investing, targeting core assets to which they can apply their value-add expertise.   

EQT Infrastructure declined to comment.

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