Le mie ricette per la real estate communityPATRIZIA, a leading partner for global real assets, has announced it will invest up to EUR 140 million in Selettra S.r.l, Italy’s second-largest independent smart streetlighting company, through its flagship smart cities strategy, the Smart City Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) – the single LP fund with Dutch pension giant APG.
The landmark deal, on behalf of its institutional investor, accelerates PATRIZIA’s growth ambition and strategy to enable smarter, better connected cities in key markets around the world.
PATRIZIA Infrastructure acquires Selettra S.r.l, an Italian streetlighting energy service company (ESCo), from Fondo Italiano per l’Efficienza Energetica (FIEE) and its founders. As a part of the investment, SCIF has committed additional growth capex to drive the future development of Selettra.
Selettra was founded in 1990 for the design, redevelopment, installation, finance and management of connected lighting points. Historically, it has been focused on southern Italy but has recently expanded to include the north of the country. It is currently rolling out two additional smart city business lines connected to the development of Renewable Energy Communities and the roll-out of 5G small cells. This transaction builds a EUR 180 million portfolio of smart streetlighting companies following the recent acquisition of Ottima, SCIF’s debut investment in Europe. Combined, these transactions grow SCIF’s footprint in this sector and build an experienced technical and business development team with strong municipality connections in a new region. This will not only help Ottima realise its growth pipeline sooner and with greater efficiency, but also broaden the reach of Ottima and Selettra as leading operators working with small-to-medium sized municipalities.
Matteo Andreoletti, Head of Infrastructure Equity, Europe and North America at PATRIZIA, said: “This latest deal in Italy was a compelling investment opportunity – both in its own right as well as through its ability to create a major smart streetlighting portfolio for SCIF in Italy following the recent acquisition of Ottima. Not only is smart streetlighting important for addressing challenges around decarbonistaiton and digitalisation, but it is as a core infrastructure product that offers our investors attractive risk-adjusted returns and inflation protection. We are excited to continue our track-record of investments that enable smarter cities through real assets.”
Smart streetlighting is a significant contributor to the European Union’s policy objectives on energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions. Italy is one of the highest consumers of public lighting in the EU due to its existing network of overpowered lamps containing 150W lightbulbs, while it has the second-highest number of lighting points. By upgrading their streetlights with the latest LED technology, towns can achieve energy savings of over 50% and minimise harmful substances from their communities, such as ultraviolet radiations and CO2 emissions.
Pictured : Matteo Andreoletti
Source : Company
