Starwood Energy powers up with $433m energy fund

Private equity firm Starwood Energy Group Global, an affiliate of Greenwich, Connecticut-based Starwood Capital Group, has closed its Starwood Energy Infrastructure Fund with $433 million (€278 million) in equity commitments.

“We are very pleased with the response from the investor community for the Fund,” Barry Sternlicht, chairman and chief executive of Starwood Capital said in a statement, adding that the formation of Starwood Energy Infrastructure Fund was the result of a “focused business strategy” it had been pursuing for several years in the North American power generation and transmission sector. Investors included endowments, foundations, pension plans, banks, insurance companies and high-net-worth individuals.

The vehicle, which will acquire and fund development of energy infrastructure assets, has already committed more than $250 million to projects with costs of more than $1 billion. The firm is also targeting value-add greenfield and brownfield development opportunities comprising “build to suit” assets for “long term credit counterparty tenants.”

The fund’s exiting portfolio of energy assets include Midway, a 120 megawatt simple-cycle natural gas peaking plant located 60 miles west of Fresno, California currently under development and Thermo Ft. Lupton Facility, a 272 megawatt combined cycle natural gas power plant and associated greenhouse steam-host 25 miles northeast of Denver, Colorado.

Starwood also just launched an infrastructure finance group.