UK pension fund nest to invest £250m in renewable power

[LONDON] Nest Corp, the UK's biggest pension fund by members, will invest £250 million pounds (S$468 million) in renewable energy through a partnership with investment manager Octopus Renewables.

Nest's managers are looking to diversify the fund's holdings and support the transition toward clean energy. It's part of a growing wave of investment by institutional investors into renewable energy assets.

"The energy transition will require a huge amount of capital over the next 20, 30 years as more and more governments commit to net zero targets," Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Renewables said in an interview. "The strategy for the fund looks to capture that opportunity and it's a highly scalable investment." Octopus will invest the money from Nest into a variety of renewable power projects including wind, solar and biomass mostly in the UK and Europe. About two thirds of that investment will go toward assets that are either at the construction stage or already operational. As much as 25 per cent of the funding could go toward earlier-stage developments.

Beyond this initial investment, Nest could add as much as 1.4 billion pounds in total this decade. That will mostly depend on how fast Octopus can find good projects and invest the money, said Paul Todd, Nest's director of investment development and delivery.

BLOOMBERG