Bouwfonds Investment Management (Bouwfonds IM), part of Dutch bank Rabobank, has launched a new infrastructure fund for institutional investors in Germany. The new “Bouwfonds Communication Infrastructure Fund II” aims to invest EUR 500-600 million in passive telecommunication infrastructure, such as fibre-optic networks and other fixed networks, with a smaller share going to communication towers and data centres. The focus (80%) will be on regional and local access networks in Germany in areas currently underserved and with sufficient size and population density.
The proportion of debt financing will be at around 50 percent. About EUR 100 million were raised among insurance companies and pension funds in the initial closing. The target is to raise up to 300 million in equity. The fund is structured as a Luxembourg Limited Partnership SCS, with Warburg Invest Luxembourg acting as Fund Service Provider and MM Warburg & Co Luxembourg acting as Custodian for the Fund. The new fund is open to investors for a minimum of EUR 10 million, with an indicated distribution yield of 5.5-6.5 percent per year.
Boufonds already has a similar fund in the Netherlands. Started in 2008, the Communications Infrastructure Fund (CIF) is the second-largest fibre operator in the country, after KPN's Reggefiber. CIF originally focused on converting local cable networks to fibre and in recent years has focused more on greenfield deployment in rural areas. In total Bouwfonds has invested around EUR 840 million in communications infrastructure in the Netherlands, of which around three-quarters in fixed networks and the remainder in towers and data centres.
