B Capital Partners infrastructure fund establishes battery storage platform

Zurich/ Berlin — Baker McKen­zie advi­sed infra­struc­ture funds mana­ged by B Capi­tal Part­ners AG, Zurich, on the estab­lish­ment of BCP Battery Holding as a plat­form to acquire a pipe­line of battery storage faci­li­ties in Germany with a total capa­city of over 300 MW. As its first invest­ment in the pipe­line, the plat­form has acqui­red a 60 MW battery storage project in Eisen­ach, Thurin­gia, which is curr­ently under cons­truc­tion and will be the largest indus­trial battery in the German battery storage market when completed.

The infra­struc­ture funds mana­ged by B Capi­tal Part­ners imple­men­ted the tran­sac­tion as part of a newly formed joint venture toge­ther with other invest­ment funds as co-inves­­tors mana­ged by another Zurich-based asset manager.

Baker McKenzie’s work included, in parti­cu­lar, advi­sing on a frame­work agree­ment to secure the pipe­line, project-rela­­ted agree­ments (such as lease, EPC, O&M and marke­ting agree­ments), joint venture struc­ture, finan­cing and tax struc­tu­ring, and tran­sac­tion agree­ments rela­ted to the acqui­si­tion of each project.

“The Baker McKen­zie team, led by Claire Dietz-Polte and Holger Engel­kamp, was able to assist us with all rele­vant aspects of the tran­sac­tion and the project agree­ments due to their in-depth indus­try know­ledge and outstan­ding M&A as well as project expe­ri­ence,” commen­ted Dr. Barbara Weber (photo), foun­der of B Capi­tal Part­ners.

“I am plea­sed to see that such inno­va­tive and future-orien­­ted invest­ments are growing and thus contri­bu­ting to the energy tran­si­tion in Germany,” commen­ted Claire Dietz-Polte. Holger Engel­kamp added: “A parti­cu­lar chall­enge in this tran­sac­tion was the imple­men­ta­tion of various ESG requi­re­ments based on an ESG tool deve­lo­ped by our client to ensure that it was truly a sustainable investment.”

Follo­wing its first invest­ment in battery storage in Germany in 2020, B Capi­tal Part­ners, a Zurich-based asset manage­ment firm specia­li­zing in sustainable infra­struc­ture, has assem­bled an exclu­sive pipe­line of battery storage assets in Germany from seve­ral leading battery storage deve­lo­pers. The pipe­line consists of more than 300 MW of battery storage that the newly formed BCP Battery Holding will acquire and build over the next twelve months. Once the cons­truc­tion of the pipe­line projects is comple­ted, BCP Battery Holding will be the largest company of its kind in Germany.

Legal advice of B Capi­tal Part­ners AG: Baker McKenzie

Lead: Corporate/Projects: Dr. Claire Dietz-Polte LL.M. (Part­ner, Berlin), Holger Engel­kamp LL.M. (Coun­sel, Berlin)
Team: Corporate/Projects: Jasmin Mayerl (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
Public Law: Dr. Janet Butler (Coun­sel, Berlin), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Voll LL.M. (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
Anti­trust: Prof. Dr. Chris­tian Burholt LL.M. (Part­ner, Berlin), Dr. Katrin Kurz (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
Real Estate: Dr. Daniel Bork (Coun­sel, Dusseldorf)
Insu­rance: Dr. Peter Stan­ke­witsch (Senior Coun­sel, Frankfurt)
Tax: Dr. Stephan Behnes (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Florian Gimm­ler (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Dr. Astrid Ruppelt (Coun­sel, Frank­furt), Corne­lia Hoene (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Banking & Finance: Kath­rin Marchant (Part­ner, Frankfurt)

About B Capi­tal Partners

B Capi­tal Part­ners AG is a part­­ner-owned invest­ment house, estab­lished in 2003 and Zurich-based. We exclu­si­vely focus on core sustainable infra­struc­ture. Since 2010, we have inves­ted and advi­sed capi­tal in excess of EUR 2.6bn across Europe. Our goal is to select supe­rior infra­struc­ture assets for our clients, while adhe­ring to the highest corpo­rate ethic as well as to state-of-the-art ESG stan­dards. We are a signa­tory to UN PRI as well as to WEPs (Women Empower­ment Prin­ci­ples) and a member of GRESB.