BaltCap, a leading private equity and venture capital investor in the Baltic countries has announced that BaltCap Infrastructure Fund (BInF) has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Axis Technologies, a subsidiary of Lithuania-headed Axis Industries Group to develop the first infrastructure project financed by BInF – a 48MW biomass plant in Vilnius, Lithuania.
According to a statement, the deal was signed on September 28 in Vilnius during the 2017 Pan-Baltic Infrastructure Summit and is the first project of BInF. Worth EUR 16 million the EPC agreement states that a 48MW biomass heat plant near Gariūnai should be built and become operational by the beginning of 2019. According to estimates, the heat plant will be able to supply nearly 10 percent of the Vilnius heat demand.
The heat energy in the plant will be produced by two water heating boilers of 19.5 MW nominal thermal capacity, as well as two 4.75 MW flue gas condensing economizers. A double flue gas cleaning system using multi-cyclone and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) will be installed in the plant.
An advanced pipeline of potential infrastructure investments accumulated over the last few years enabled us to sign the first transaction right after the first close of BInF. This new biomass plant will change the balance of the heat supply in Lithuania’s capital – after its commissioning over half of required heat supply in Vilnius will be produced from renewable sources. The biomass plant will be built without any subsidies and it will also let to reduce heating prices and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Vilnius, said Šarūnas Stepukonis, the Partner of BaltCap Infrastructure Fund.
Facts
About BaltCap and BInF
Formed in 1995, BaltCap has been managing several private equity funds with total capital of over EUR 370 million and has made more than 70 investments. BaltCap is the largest buy-out, growth capital and private equity infrastructure investor in the Baltic States with a strong presence in all three Baltic countries.
In July 2017, BaltCap launched BaltCap Infrastructure Fund (BInF) with the planned size of EUR 100 million. The fund will invest into infrastructure development across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. 60% of the funds are raised from the pension funds of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – it is the largest combined local pension funds committed to the Baltics-focused private equity fund to date. The anchor investor of BInF is the European Investment Bank (EIB) that has committed to invest EUR 20 million. This EIB support is guaranteed under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), a central element of the Juncker’s Commission Investment Plan for Europe launched to overcome the current investment gap in the EU by mobilising private financing for strategic investments.
