QUAERO CAPITAL recently completed fundraising for QUAERO EUROPEAN INFRASTRUCTURE FUND III (QEIF III) in December, exceeding €1.4 billion in commitments and surpassing the initial target of €1.25 billion announced at its launch in the second half of 2023. The management company also raised an additional €400 million in co-investment capacity alongside QEIF III. Since its launch 10 years ago, QUAERO CAPITAL has therefore raised a total of €2.7 billion for its infrastructure business.
Around 40% of QEIF III will be committed by the end of January 2026. The fund’s strategy is to provide equity financing for European infrastructure projects during both construction and operations. It targets assets with development and growth potential, supporting and expanding them. QEIF III takes a multi-sector approach, focusing on energy, transport, telecommunications, social infrastructure, water and the environment.
QEIF III will primarily invest in traditional project finance, particularly concessions and PPPs. QUAERO CAPITAL has proven expertise in this strategy and has contributed to financing more than €7 billion in CAPEX since 2016. There is high demand, particularly in the transport sector, which is experiencing a revival after several years of slowdown.
“This success reflects the confidence of our long-standing investors in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. It provided a solid platform from which we were able to rapidly expand in the rest of Europe, followed by North America and Asia. Our investors have been very attentive to the performance of our previous funds, while demonstrating strong conviction in the attractive fundamentals of the infrastructure asset class, despite a difficult and uncertain market environment” said Sébastien Bourget, Managing Partner, Head of Infrastructure at QUAERO CAPITAL.
Alongside the launch of QEIF III, QUAERO CAPITAL successfully completed the sale of assets from its inaugural QEIF fund, which began investing in 2016 and divesting since 2022, resulting in a net multiple of over 2.1x. Similarly, its second fund, QEIF II, which began investing at the end of 2019, is currently finalising several disposals with a comparable outcome.
QUAERO CAPITAL was advised on this fundraising by Reach Capital, who acted as placement agent in addition to internal capabilities and Proskauer, who acted as legal advisor with a team composed of Marcela Moraru (Partner – Private Investment Funds), Marie Keusch (Associate) and Léa Le Romancer (Associate).