Meridiam closes Meridiam Infrastructure Europe III at €1.3 billion

Meridiam has recently announced closing of a new fund, Meridiam Infrastructure Europe III at EUR1.3 billion (US$1.5 billion). Meridiam's fundraising generated strong investor interest which led to a firm demand of EUR2.2 billion (US$2.5 billion). The fund was closed in four months.

The new fund is the successor of Meridiam Infrastructure Europe II (MEII), which reached final closing on March 2012 and achieved EUR934 million (US$1 billion) of commitments. MEII is focused on OECD countries in Europe (West, East and Central). To date, the fund has invested in thirteen projects in Finland, France, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the UK. MEII strategy is identical to its first fund, Meridiam Infrastructure Europe I (MEI): investing in non-regulated PPP and adopting an active whole-of-life management approach to the asset.

The fund is Meridiam’s third in Europe and follows on its recently closed Meridiam Transition fund, which raised EUR350 million (US$400 million),  a climate change-focused fund, and Meridiam Africa Fund, bringing the firms total assets under management to EUR5 billion (US$5.7 billion). Meridiam Infrastructure Europe III will also follow COP21’s footprint in prioritizing green and low carbon infrastructure.

Meridiam’s focus has been to act as an investor from the earliest stages of the development of new, greenfield, public infrastructure since the firm's creation in 2005. The firm has been highly innovative from its inception, having been the first in the infrastructure market to create a 25 year closed end fund with the intention of retaining its investment in infrastructure projects for this period.

Thierry Déau, Meridiam’s founder and CEO, said:

“We are delighted to get such strong support from institutional investors in Europe on this, our third fund since Meridiam’s creation. Our 25 year fund has proved an increasingly popular fund structure, aligning the interests of public sponsors with long-term investors to embrace the pressing issues of the day and the future as they relate to innovation, emerging development and climate change.”