Standard Life Investments seals second major energy deal in days

Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments (SLI) has announced the purchase of a portfolio of hydro plants in Norway.

SL Capital Partners, which manages about £6.6 billion in private equity assets across Europe and North America for SLI, is to buy Nordic Power through its infrastructure fund.

The deal comes hot on the heels of another Scandinavian SLI energy deal following its purchase of a gas network operation in Finland little more than a week ago.

The latest deal will see an agreement with Norwegian utility Nordkraft, where SL Capital will buy Nordic Power, which operates 13 small-scale hydro energy plants that generate a total of 58 megawatts, and in return, Nordkraft will manage, operate and maintain the plants and will seek to sell further assets that are close to being commissioned.

Nordkraft chief Eirik Frantzen said the arrangement was “rather new” for the in the hydro market, but “in other sectors such as oil and gas and real estate, this type of arrangement has worked very successfully over long periods”.

Dominic Helmsley, managing director of infrastructure at SL Capital, added: “Small hydro power is a growth area of the market across Europe and we will pursue scale through additional purchases in the sector.”