Stafford acquires stake in Deutsche infra fund

Stafford Capital Partners has struck the second deal for its latest infrastructure secondaries fund with the acquisition of a stake in the Deutsche Bank-managed, €2 billion RREEF Pan-European Infrastructure Fund.

The alternatives investment firm used its Stafford Infrastructure Secondaries Fund II, as well as its first infrastructure fund, to acquire 77 percent of SCOR Investment Partners’ stake in the 2007-vintage vehicle, according to a UK regulatory filing.

A statement from Stafford announcing the third close for Infrastructure Secondaries Fund II notes the fund recently made its second deal worth €18.5 million. 

SISF II had raised €183 million as of early March.

SCOR Investment Partners is the investment arm of French reinsurance company SCOR. Swiss pension fund investment manager IST Investment Foundation, which manages SFr6.9 billion ($6.9 billion; €6.5 billion) of public and private pension fund assets, acquired the remaining 23 percent of SCOR’s interest.

RREEF Pan-European Infrastructure Fund is managed by Deutsche Asset management, the alternatives and real assets investment arm of Deutsche Bank. The fund raised almost three times its initial €800 million target, closing on €2.1 billion in November 2007, according to PEI data.

Stafford managing partner Ingo Marten confirmed the RREEF deal was the second investment for SISF II following the firm’s acquisition in July of a €20 million interest in 3i’s BIIF fund, a £680 million ($839 million; €782 million) infrastructure fund that closed in 2009.

Both deals were “in line with our focus on core secondary infrastructure funds”, Marten said.

IST declined to comment, and Deutsche Bank Asset Management did not return a request for comment.

According to SCOR’s 2016 global report, the company reduced its exposure to infrastructure funds to €41 million in the fourth quarter of last year from €63 million a year prior.