German cooperative bank fund manager Union Investment has made a second closing of its infrastructure fund launched last year, collecting additional €100 million in equity for total investment capacity of €350 million.

Union Investment is the investment arm of the DZ Bank Group and part of the cooperative financial services network. It is headquartered in Frankfurt.

The fund's portfolio is targeted at investments in core European countries, primarily Germany, France and the UK. Investments in Scandinavia and Poland can also be included on a selective basis. The focus will be on wind farms (onshore projects), making up around 70% of total assets. An investment of up to 30% in photovoltaic systems is also planned.

Christoph Schumacher, management board member at Hamburg-based Union Investment Institutional Property which manages the fund, said:

"Compared to the first subscription phase, we were able to further boost the level of interest among our institutional investors in our first infrastructure fund."

Registered in Luxembourg, the fund (UniInstitutional Infrastruktur SICAV-SIF Erneuerbare Energien) has already bought two wind farms in Germany and has now signed an agreement to acquire another in Ireland. Further investments in France, the UK and Germany are scheduled over the next few weeks.

An average long-term target yield of six to eight per cent of equity capital is expected; the minimum investment was €2.5 million.