USS invests £200m for 50% stake in 4000 MV Spanish solar energy platform Bruc Energy

18 May 2021

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the largest private pension fund in the United Kingdom by assets, has taken a 50% stake in Bruc Energy, a Spain and Portugal renewables-focussed investment vehicle created by Canadian pension fund OPTrust and the Spanish businessman, Juan Béjar.

In the transaction arranged by USS Investment Management, the wholly-owned subsidiary and principal investment manager and advisor to the scheme, USS has invested €225M (c.£200m) in return for the stake in a major pipeline of 4000 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) farms. Bruc Energy has an ambitious growth plan that goes beyond this to invest in other green energies, such as wind power.

USS already has a strong relationship with both OPTrust and Juan Bejar through Globalvia, a specialist infrastructure platform focussed on managing rail and highways assets around the world.

Spain’s long days of sunshine and a national target to reach 100% renewable-based generation by 2050 make it an attractive place to invest in solar energy. In addition, the decades long lifespan of solar PV panels make them well-suited to USS in helping pay members’ pensions long into the future.

USS Investment Management CEO, Simon Pilcher, said: “We are delighted to be committing further finance to renewables and particularly to a major Spanish solar platform like this. We have already invested or committed around £1 billion to renewable energy and demand for this will only increase as more and more countries transition to lower carbon. We know that our members care very much about climate change and ESG and we are convinced that USS playing its part in supporting the transition to a low carbon economy makes good financial sense, too. This announcement closely follows on from our stated ambition to become Net Zero by 2050 so this transaction and others like it will be a key plank of our strategy going forward.”

Source: Universities Superannuation Scheme