With £500M In Firepower, World’s First EV Charging Fund Buys Trio Of Sites To Pioneer New Asset Class
A fund billed as the world’s first set up solely to buy and develop sites for charging electric vehicle fleets has struck a trio of deals across the UK, taking the amount of capital it has deployed to £120M.
Infinium Logistics is the asset and development manager for FleetHubs, an EV fleet-charging real estate fund that raised £500M of equity in 2022. Infinium said it has bought sites near Heathrow Airport, west of London; Surrey, south-west of London; and Sheffield, in the north-east of England.
It also bought two sites earlier this year: One in Swindon, in the west of England, and the other in Banbury, north-west of London, which it bought for £28M. The Banbury site is let to Amazon.
With the new deals, Infinium has spent £70M on sites. It plans to spend another £50M developing the EV capabilities at the locations.
The fund buys sites where owners of electric vehicle fleets can park and charge them. It puts in the EV charging infrastructure, while vehicle owners pay rent or parking fees as well as for the electricity. GreenPoint Partners is the fund manager.
The company said its aim is to help speed up the decarbonisation process of the transport sector by providing the real estate and infrastructure needed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
Infinium acquired the Heathrow Flightpath car park for £22.5M from Aprirose. Located close to Terminals 2 and 3, the property offers more than 700 parking spaces across 4 acres and is occupied by a Meet & Greet airport parking operator. Infinium said it offers a strategic location, fronting the A4 and close to the airport. Colliers advised Infinium, and Lambert Smith Hampton represented Aprirose.
In Sheffield, Infinium purchased a 3-acre site on Terry Street for an undisclosed sum. The property is known as the Insight Building and includes an office building with associated car parking.
The site is adjacent to Sheffield Arena and surrounded by warehouse hubs for leading UK logistics providers, including Amazon, Royal Mail, Parcel Force, FedEx and UPS. The deal represents an opportunity to develop a 200-space FleetHub and a rapid EV charging forecourt, which has piqued the interest of several potential end users, Infinium said. CBRE advised Infinium, and Savills represented Insight.
In Surrey, Infinium has exchanged contracts on the acquisition of a site, with completion due in February 2024.
