LONDON, United Kingdom (17 September 2019) – Arcus Infrastructure Partners (“Arcus”), is pleased to announce that it was named the Global Diversified Fund and European Fund Sector leader in the 2019 GRESB Infrastructure Assessment.
For the third year in a row, Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 1 (‘AEIF1’) was ranked first of the European Infrastructure Funds (against 36 peers). AEIF1 scored 87 out of 100 possible points in the GRESB fund assessment (compared to 79/100 in 2018) while the average GRESB fund score was 55 out of 100 (compared to the same in 2018).
This strong score also meant AEIF1 was ranked first in diversified infrastructure funds globally (against 74 peers), which is an excellent result and recognition of our strong ESG performance.
Overall, the Arcus underlying assets scored extremely well when benchmarked against their peers with four of Arcus’s six assets receiving a 5-star rating. Both Alpha Trains and Brisa were ranked first in the Rolling Stock Europe and European Motorway Networks categories respectively.
Arcus joined GRESB as a member in March 2017, with all Arcus investee companies participating since 2017, and has been a member of the GRESB Infrastructure Benchmark Committee (IBC) since October 2018. 2019 is the fourth year that GRESB has run the infrastructure benchmarking process with 107 Infrastructure Funds and 393 infrastructure assets participating (compared to 51 Funds and 134 assets in 2016, 64 Funds and 160 assets in 2017 and 75 Funds and 280 assets in 2018).
“The GRESB Sector Leader Awards Program recognizes infrastructure companies, funds and assets that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in sustainability” says Ian Harding, Co-managing Partner. “We are extremely proud to have been recognised for our leadership and effort in this area. ESG has and continues to be an important focus for Arcus. We are proud of our approach to identifying, managing and improving overall ESG performance at Arcus and in our portfolio companies.”
“We have always believed in the importance of responsible investment and improving the sustainable operations of our investee companies” says Neil Krawitz, Arcus Head of ESG. “The GRESB assessment process is an Important tool in our asset management approach to measure and review our companies’ sustainability operations on a regular basis. We are also pleased to have taken a leading role on driving improvements in infrastructure ESG management on the GRESB IBC where we have been promoting ESG best practices, and the adoption of GRESB across the infrastructure sector, and we are particularly pleased with the significant growth again in GRESB participant numbers in 2019.”
About Arcus
Arcus Infrastructure Partners is an independent fund manager focussed solely on mid-market investments in European infrastructure. Arcus invests on behalf of institutional investors through discretionary funds and special co-investment vehicles and, through its subsidiaries, currently manages investments with an aggregate enterprise value in excess of €15bn (as of 30 June 2019). Arcus targets value-add infrastructure investments, with a particular focus on businesses in the transportation, energy and telecommunications sectors.
About GRESB
Mission-driven and investor-led, GRESB is the environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmark for real assets. It works in collaboration with the industry to provide standardized and validated ESG data to the capital markets. The 2019 real estate benchmark covers more than 1,000 property companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), funds, and developers. Its coverage for infrastructure includes 500 infrastructure funds and assets. Combined, GRESB represents over USD 4 trillion in real asset value. More than 100 institutional investors, with over USD 22 trillion AUM, use GRESB data to monitor their investments, engage with their managers, and make decisions that lead to a more sustainable real asset industry.
www.GRESB.com
Media Contacts
Stephan Grillmaier
stephan.grillmaier@arcusip.com
+44 20 7832 3400