The investment will see BII and FMO partner with Swiss-based SUSI Partners to develop a renewable energy platform from scratch.
British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, have joined hands with SUSI Partners to launch a new renewable energy platform, Sustainable Asia Renewable Assets (SARA).
Supported by SUSI’s Southeast Asia Energy Transition Fund (SAETF), which has secured $139m (€133m) in fresh commitments, SARA will focus on developing renewable energy projects across the region, with Vietnam’s Dam Nai wind farm as its cornerstone asset.
BII and FMO have committed $70m and $50m respectively to SARA and the SAETF, contributing to SAETF’s growth from $120m to $259m.
Addressing development risks
Speaking to Impact Investor, Shan-Kai Thè, senior investment officer at FMO said the partnership with BII and SUSI Partners will help to address early-stage development risks in renewable energy projects through the platform financing approach.
A unique aspect of the investment is that SARA is being built from scratch, and currently has no existing management team, according to Thè. The companies will work together to hire a CEO and management team to grow the Dam Nai wind farm and expand the portfolio to 500MW within five to six years.
“We are currently very focused on expanding this portfolio, which means that in the beginning, the teams at FMO, BII and SUSI will be getting their hands dirty in order to grow the company,” said Thè.
Speaking about the investment mechanism for the project, Thè said: “Over the past five to 10 years, the market has moved from single asset financing to either backing or building up a platform company, which we believe is more efficient.”
SAETF’s current portfolio focuses on utility-scale renewable energy projects as well as distributed generation and energy efficiency projects across emerging Southeast Asian markets. To date, the fund has invested in Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia.
Launched in 2019, SAETF reopened in 2024 after being initially closed in 2023, based on strong deal flow and demand from LPs.
Catalysing capital
Southeast Asia is a rapidly developing region with increasing energy demand, placing pressure on countries to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060, while the Philippines have set a goal of 75% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.
Speaking to Impact Investor, Srini Nagarajan, managing director and head of Asia at BII, said that addressing the climate finance gap requires collaborative efforts.
“Our role as a DFI, alongside our partners like FMO, aims to act as a catalyst and attract commercial capital to the projects and businesses we support. The goal of building a platform like SARA from scratch is to take early-stage risks which commercial investors hesitate to take, build a pipeline of bankable projects, and eventually mobilise commercial capital to these markets,” said Nagarajan.
Nagarajan added that according to the International Energy Agency, it is estimated that Southeast Asia will account for more than a quarter of global energy demand until 2035.
“However, climate sectors are still at a nascent stage. The regulatory environment is evolving, and there is a lack of bankable projects and demonstrable feasibility,” he added.
Last year, FMO and BII invested $50m into a leading energy-as-a-service provider in the region, which saw FMO facilitating BII’s first direct financing into Southeast Asia, as reported by Impact Investor.
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