Standard Life has completed an infrastructure financing transaction providing £61m of long-term financing secured against the Snetterton Renewable Energy Plant, a biomass power facility in Norfolk, led by Octopus Capital.
The transaction demonstrates an investment structure enabling pension and insurance capital to access infrastructure assets within a matching adjustment-eligible structure.
For infrastructure owners, the structure allows for additional borrowing from other more traditional third-party lenders and structures.
Manuel Dusina, head of real assets at Standard Life, said: "This transaction represents an important milestone for Standard Life and demonstrates how innovative structuring can create new opportunities for pension and insurance capital to access infrastructure investments. By combining real estate and infrastructure expertise, we have developed an innovative project infrastructure financing structure that provides the long-term, predictable cashflows our customers need while supporting sustainable investment in essential UK infrastructure.
“As a retirement specialist, our focus is on helping customers achieve better outcomes and greater financial security in later life. Investments such as this can play an important role in delivering the resilient, long-term returns that underpin retirement savings and retirement income solutions. We believe this approach represents a scalable blueprint for future real asset investment, providing a repeatable framework to channel institutional capital into long-duration infrastructure assets with attractive risk-adjusted return characteristics.”
