{"id":32589,"date":"2025-07-29T20:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/32589\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T20:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:04:10","slug":"dutch-pension-giant-pledges-650mn-to-octopus-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/32589\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch pension giant pledges $650mn to Octopus Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n

Simply sign up to the Renewable energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

The biggest asset manager in the Netherlands has pledged to invest A$1bn ($652mn) in renewable energy group Octopus Australia, in a boost to Australia\u2019s efforts to shift away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

APG Asset Management, which manages the \u20ac544bn Dutch pension fund ABP, said on Tuesday it was committing the funds to help develop big solar and battery projects, ending a two-to-three-year search by the energy company for a global funding partner.<\/p>\n

Sam Reynolds, chief executive of Octopus Australia, said it marked the start of what he expected to be a \u201cmultibillion-dollar, multiyear relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that Australia needed \u201cabout \u00a3250bn\u201d spent on its energy projects over the next 10 years, which was \u201ctoo much\u201d for the country\u2019s own A$4.1tn superannuation system \u2014 already large domestic investors \u2014 to absorb.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Labor government is set to revise its 2035 climate targets in September. Simon Stiell, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in Sydney this week that Australia needed to go beyond \u201cbog standard\u201d targets and urged more investment in renewable energy.<\/p>\n

A third of Australian homes already have rooftop solar panels, and the government has proposed subsidies for household battery storage. However, larger renewable energy projects have come under threat, with BP and Fortescue pulling out of green hydrogen plans in the past week while several offshore wind projects have also been shelved.<\/p>\n

The move by APG \u2014 one of the largest commitments to renewable energy made in Australia \u2014 underscores its pledge to meet its net zero emissions target by 2050 or sooner and its confidence in the returns that the sector can deliver.<\/p>\n

Hans-Martin Aerts, head of Asia-Pacific infrastructure and private natural capital for APG, said the partnership was \u201ca unique opportunity to participate in the rapidly growing Australian renewable energy market\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. with the potential to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns\u201d.<\/p>\n

Octopus Australia is part of the London-based Octopus Group, an investment business that also owns a large stake in UK household energy supplier Octopus Energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Octopus Australia will use the funding from APG on its Blind Creek solar and battery project in New South Wales, which it aims to start building in October.<\/p>\n

It will have 300 megawatts of solar capacity and almost 500 megawatt-hours of battery storage capacity. The funding will also go towards its 1 gigawatt-hour Blackstone battery project near Brisbane. <\/p>\n

KPMG acted as senior financial adviser on the deal, led by M&A partner Gavin Quantock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia sourced almost two-thirds of its electricity from fossil fuels \u2014 mostly coal \u2014 in 2023 but wants 82 per cent from renewable electricity by 2030. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s government is due to set a 2035 emissions reduction target in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also on Tuesday, the UK\u2019s \u00a37bn Smart Pension, an acquisitive defined contribution pension scheme, announced a \u00a3330mn investment in two funds managed by Octopus Energy Generation, which invests in renewable energy.<\/p>\n

The investment will make up 5 per cent of Smart Pension\u2019s default fund and will be used to finance wind farms through Octopus\u2019s \u00a31.5bn Sky fund and other projects including ground-source heat pumps through the smaller Octopus Energy Transition fund.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Claudio<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only just now that you are getting the products that you can invest in,\u201d said Andrew Evans, group chief executive of Smart, adding that there would be \u201cmore and more opportunities\u201d to invest directly in British infrastructure because more pension funds had committed to do so.<\/p>\n

Under a compact signed at Mansion House in London this year, 17 of the UK\u2019s largest workplace defined contribution pension providers pledged to invest at least 5 per cent<\/a> of their default funds in UK private markets by 2030. <\/p>\n

Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Energy Generation, said it was a \u201cbig ticket\u201d investment from Smart Pension that he hoped would grow as more savers paid into the fund.<\/p>\n

He added that he had seen \u201can increase in interest over the course of the last six months\u201d across other pension funds.<\/p>\n

Climate Capital\"\"<\/p>\n

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics.\u00a0Explore the FT\u2019s coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Are you curious about the FT\u2019s environmental sustainability commitments?\u00a0Find out more about our science-based targets here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Renewable energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-32589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}