Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Canada’s second-largest pension fund, has made a $135-million investment in Shizen Energy to boost the Japanese energy group’s growth in the country and key international markets.
In a statement, CDPQ and Shizen Energy said they have also agreed to a co-investment framework that will see the Canadian pension fund investing up to $339 million. The deal marks CDPQ’s first direct infrastructure investment in Japan.
“This transaction in Japan is an important milestone in the deployment of CDPQ’s long-term Asia-Pacific infrastructure strategy,” according to Emmanuel Jacket, executive vice president and head of infrastructure strategy.
CDPQ will get a seat on the Board of Directors of Shizen Energy following the investment. In the sector, the Canadian pension giant has also backed US renewables major Invenergy and India’s Azure Power.
According to the announcement, Shizen Energy, headquartered in Fukuoka City, will continue to develop various renewable energy sources, including ground and roof-mounted solar power, agri-solar power, onshore and offshore wind power, small-scale hydroelectric power, and biomass power.
The Japanese energy firm said it will continue to accelerate on-site and off-site power purchase agreements (PPAs) abroad as it aims to work on large-scale solar wind power generation projects.
Founded in 2011 by a trio of wind power executives – Ken Isono, Masaya Hasegawa, and Kenji Kawado – Shizen Energy is one of Japan’s most ambitious renewables developers, having been involved in more than 1 GW of renewable energy generation in the country and overseas.
Since 2016, the company has also been focusing on its overseas operations, expanding its development and power generation projects in areas such as Southeast Asia and Brazil, according to the announcement.
“Shizen Energy has been striving to achieve its purpose of ‘We take action for the blue planet’, and we feel that even greater speed is required to resolve global warming and energy challenges,” the founders said.
With the investment from CDPQ, Shizen Energy’s fundraising initiatives now total over $502 million this year.
CDPQ, which manages the pensions of several public sector bodies as well as other investments, reported investment losses and a drop in net assets for the first six months of the year, as aggressive rate hikes triggered turbulence across stock and bond markets.
As of June 30, net assets for the fund stood at $392 billion, down from $419.8 billion at the end of last year, it said.