Sandbrook on the verge of hitting inaugural climate fund’s $1.5bn hard-cap

Emerging manager Sandbrook Capital has secured $1.42 billion for a first-time climate offering.

The amount raised, disclosed in Form D documents, puts Sandbrook Climate Infrastructure Fund I well above its $1 billion target, reported last year by affiliate title Buyouts.

Fund I has a hard-cap of $1.5 billion, sources told Buyouts, and is expected to wrap up “in the next few months”. The firm declined to comment.

Sandbrook’s success on the fundraising trail is notable for two reasons. First, it is emblematic of the vigour of energy transition products in a slow market. A key factor in this is LPs looking for opportunities aligned with their net-zero and ESG policies.

Second, as an emerging manager, Sandbrook almost certainly faced barriers to getting noticed by investors. With multiple energy transition funds in the market, cash-strapped LPs will most likely opt for established sponsors.

Sandbrook perhaps overcame this challenge due to the bona fides of its team. The shop was founded in 2021 by five veterans of Riverstone, a cross-spectrum energy private equity firm.

Partners Alfredo Marti and Carl Williams are ex-co-heads of Riverstone Power, an investor in global energy, power and infrastructure opportunities. A third partner, Chris Hunt, previously held that role, while a fourth, Germán Cueva, co-led the strategy in Latin America.

A fifth partner, Ken Ryan, was Riverstone’s head of corporate development, capital strategies and investor relations. Other team members come from places like Blackstone, Eclipse Ventures, Global Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs and OGCI Climate Investments.

Debut deals

Sandbrook’s strategy draws on the experience of its founders. The focus is the global mid-market climate infrastructure space, accessed through the formation of platform companies that can build or combine real assets geared to the energy transition.

Opportunities will be sought in clean power generation, transmission and storage, low-carbon supply chain, energy use and efficiency and low-carbon services sectors. Most investing will be located in North America and Europe.

Fund I will make up to 10 investments of roughly $200 million to $500 million apiece, according to New Mexico State Investment Council documents, with an ability to go larger by tapping into co-investing LPs.

Sandbrook has already closed two deals. The first, announced last year, was a majority acquisition of Havfram, an offshore wind services provider. A $250 million growth commitment made as part the deal was later upped to $500 million with the help of PSP Investments.

In June, Sandbrook announced a second investment in Voltwise Power, a newly formed developer, owner and operator of utility-scale battery energy storage systems. Both Havfram and Voltwise are based in Europe.

Sandbrook has a team of 22 professionals operating from the firm’s Stamford, Connecticut, headquarters and London office. They include four operating partners with executive backgrounds at Avangrid, Engie, Pattern Energy and Siemens Gamesa.