LONDON, United Kingdom (15 October 2021) – Arcus Infrastructure Partners (“Arcus”) has been named Sector Leader four times in the respected 2021 GRESB Infrastructure Assessment, including Sector Leader for the European Fund regional category.
Other Sector Leader awards for Arcus include two in the Global Transport Fund sector category and another in the Global Sector Specific Fund (excluding renewables and transport) category.
“This is fantastic news for the Arcus team and our investee companies. We are extremely proud to have been recognised again by GRESB for our ESG leadership and this result is testament to the whole team who have continued to prioritise best practice ESG management and performance during these challenging times.” says Ian Harding, Managing Partner. “The continuous improvement year on year of all Arcus funds and assets is the result of much hard work and dedication from both our Asset Management teams and from the Portfolio companies.”
Each year GRESB assesses and benchmarks the ESG performance of real assets worldwide. The GRESB assessments are guided by what investors and the industry consider to be material issues in sustainable performance of real asset investments and are aligned with international reporting frameworks, goals and emerging regulations.
Arcus has again demonstrated best-in-class ESG performance with the Arcus Tivana Investor Vehicles (the TDF investment partnerships or “Tivana”) ranking first out of 106 infrastructure funds which completed the full GRESB assessment, scoring 99 out of 100 possible points (compared to 96/100 in 2019). This strong score also meant Tivana has been named GRESB Infrastructure Sector Leader for European Funds and Global Sector Specific Fund Sector Leader (excluding renewables & transport).
Arcus European Trains SCSp (the Alpha Trains investment partnership) and Arcus A1 Investor Vehicle (the GTC investment partnership) were respectively ranked 2nd and 4th out of all 106 infrastructure funds. The two vehicles were also named joint GRESB Infrastructure Sector Leaders for Global Transport Funds.
Our most recent fund, Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 2 (“AEIF2”) was ranked sixth in the European Diversified Infrastructure Funds category (against 25 peers), with assets scoring well when benchmarked against their peer groups. AEIF2 received a 3-star GRESB rating this year, down from a 5-star rating in the 2020 assessment, in line with Arcus’s expectations, which was the result of two out of four fund assets participating in the GRESB assessment for the first time, when it is very rare for assets to score highly on their first attempt.
E-Fiber and Swiss4net received 5-star and 4-star ratings from GRESB in the 2021 assessment, with scores of 91 and 86 respectively out of a possible 100 points, both improving on their prior year scores. E-Fiber ranked second against nine fibre network peers. Constellation and Horizon, assets participating for the first time this year, saw good initial performances, scoring 67 points and 52 points respectively.
Also of note in the asset assessments, TDF (held within the Tivana partnership) scored full points with 100 out of a possible 100 points ranking first out of 549 asset participants, a truly fantastic score. In addition, TDF was awarded two Asset Sector Leader awards for Data Infrastructure and Data Transmission.
Improvements in the GRESB asset scores demonstrate the commitment Arcus and portfolio companies have made to continuous ESG improvements and the various changes implemented throughout the year to improve sustainability.
Arcus joined GRESB in March 2017, with all Arcus investee companies participating since 2017 and Arcus has been a member of the GRESB Infrastructure Benchmark Committee (IBC) since October 2018.
“GRESB Sector Leaders are the organisations that are setting the pace and driving progress toward a net zero future. We are proud to recognise your determination, achievement, and leadership in creating a more sustainable world.” says Sebastien Roussette, CEO of GRESB. “The infrastructure industry continues to make significant progress in its approach to ESG, with GRESB participation growing year over year. We are proud to see the industry deepen its commitment to ESG transparency and continue improving overall performance.”
“The GRESB assessment process continues to be one of the most important tools in our approach to ESG management and benchmarking of sustainability performance within our investee company’ operations.” says Neil Krawitz, Arcus Head of ESG. “We are pleased to have continued taking a leading role in driving improvements across infrastructure ESG management and promoting ESG best practices and the adoption of GRESB across the infrastructure sector.”
About Arcus
Arcus Infrastructure Partners is an independent fund manager focused solely on long-term investments in European infrastructure. Arcus invests on behalf of institutional investors through discretionary funds and special co-investment vehicles and, through its subsidiaries, currently manages investments with an aggregate enterprise value in excess of EUR 17bn (as of 30 June 2021). Arcus targets mid-market, value-add infrastructure investments, with a particular focus on businesses in the transportation, energy and telecommunications sectors. www.arcusip.com
About GRESB
GRESB is a mission-driven and industry-led organization providing standardized and validated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data to financial markets. Established in 2009, GRESB has become the leading ESG benchmark for real estate and infrastructure investments across the world, used by 140 institutional and financial investors to inform decision-making. The Infrastructure Fund Assessment grew by 26% in 2021 to cover 149 funds (up from 118 last year), and the Infrastructure Asset Assessment grew by 31% to include 558 assets (up from 426). The Infrastructure Benchmark now covers $343 billion of AuM at the fund level and $738 billion of AuM at the asset level. www.GRESB.com
Media Contacts for Arcus:
| Mark McIntyre
T: +44 7791 760087 |
Callum Spreng
T: +44 7803 970103 |
