Edmond de Rothschild’s (EdR) BRIDGE-V is to close in 8 weeks – with the aim of reaching €2.5 billion ($2.4bn) in fundraising.

BRIDGE-V – which comprises a mix of collective funds and dedicated funds – is currently in excess of €2.2 billion, and expects to raise an extra €300 million by the end of October (2022).  

The core investors are based in Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Slovakia and South Korea.

BRIDGE-V consists of 2 strategies:

• Senior Solvency 2 infrastructure eligible assets
• Yield Plus space: range BB-/BB+ and mainly junior debt

Since the opening of the fund, 20 assets have been financed – including 11 in 2022 – and expect to invest in 25-28 projects in total.

IJGlobal understands that following closing of BRIDGE-V, EdR will go straight back to the market to start fundraising of BRIDGE-VI.

The fund manager will put in some equity to kick-start its new fund.

BRIDGE-VI will have a 2-fold strategy – with the possibility to tap into both junior and senior debt for different types of assets and lenders.

As per BRIDGE-V, BRIDGE-VI will focus on a sustainability strategy – monitoring closely the selection of assets, but also monitoring the assets through their lifetime to make sure they reach their ESG targets.

The fund manager plans a significant geographical expansion, and will look at diverse technologies participating in energy transition, including:

• hydro
• hydrogen
• EV
• battery storage
• digital infrastructure
• social infra
• utilities

Since the launch of the BRIDGE investment platform in 2014, EdR has raised more than €5 billion.