Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Toronto, has formed a joint venture with London-based Corio Generation to fund the development of up to nine gigawatts of offshore wind projects around the world.
OTPP will invest up to $1 billion in development capital as part of the endeavor, the pension plan said in a news release issued Thursday.
The offshore portfolio will comprise 14 fixed bottom and floating projects in Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the U.K. — all of which are currently under development by Corio.
As part of the arrangement, OTPP will acquire up to one-half of Corio's stake in these projects, "supporting development, construction and operation," the news release said.
"The partnership for now is up to $1 billion but that could expand in (the) future as Corio and Ontario Teachers' have agreed to explore opportunities to expand the partnership through the creation or acquisition of new projects," an OTPP spokesman said in an email.
"With this collaboration with Ontario Teachers, Corio will generate vast amounts of clean, affordable electricity and support thousands of green jobs, while providing attractive returns on investment," said Jonathan Cole, Corio CEO in the release.
Subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the deal between Corio and OTPP is expected to close in the third quarter.
Corio is a specialist offshore wind business that is part of the Green Investment Group, a unit of Macquarie Asset Management, which is part of Macquarie Group, the Australia-based global financial services firm.
OTPP had C$241.6 billion ($189 billion) in net assets as of Dec. 31.
