The Australian arm of UK-headquartered green energy and investment provider, Octopus, is sounding out interest in NZ amid a new wholesale fund-raising round.
Campbell Ross, Octopus head of client operations, said the recently launched wholesale fund could appeal to smaller NZ institutions, family offices and the like looking for exposure to the “Australian energy transition”.
“There’s not anything like this in NZ,” Ross said. “The fund invests directly into Australian renewables.”
Now working for Octopus in Australia following a three-year stint in the group’s UK office, the ex-pat Kiwi has, in fact, been based in Auckland since 2022 – enabling some informal contacts with NZ investors.
Eventually, the manager may invest in NZ renewable assets too, he said, but the shift to green energy across the Tasman represents a larger, and more urgent, opportunity.
“Australia is transitioning from an 80 per cent energy dependence on coal to a range of renewable generation from solar, wind and battery storage,” Ross said.
The Octopus wholesale fund builds on the manager’s A$500 million institutional book, which includes allocations from two plus-sized Australian superannuation funds – HostPlus and Rest.
Octopus first opened fund-raising rounds for the wholesale and institutional vehicles in mid-2022 offering a co-investment into an underlying secured pipeline of renewable assets then valued at $3 billion with further [A]$5 billion of opportunities in the queue, according to a statement released at the time.
Ross said overall the funds now have A$1.2 billion under management with A$5.7 billion of projects in-development or subject to exclusive agreements and a further A$3.3 billion of assets lined-up in the near-term.
Currently, the Octopus fund counts the Darlington Point solar farm in NSW and the Queensland Dulacca wind farm as cornerstone, revenue-generating assets but the portfolio holds several other development projects.
Long-term the Octopus Australia Sustainable Investments (OASIS) wholesale fund has targeted an has targeted an overall net internal rate of return of 10-12 per cent.
Structured as an unregistered wholesale Australian unit trust, the OASIS fund is an open-ended vehicle with periodic capital-raising efforts – the most recent one closes later this year.
Last year the group appointed Apex Australia to administer the funds.
Founded in the UK in 2000, the Octopus business is now a sprawling global enterprise with tentacles in energy retailing, renewables development and funds management.
Globally, the group has about $25 billion of funds under management.