US-based infrastructure investor Energy Capital Partners has opened a new office in Tokyo, its second in Asia, as the private equity (PE) company sees an increase in demand among Japanese limited partners (LPs) for private market opportunities.
Energy Capital Partners (ECP) on Tuesday announced the establishment of the new Tokyo office to add to the firm’s existing Asian presence in Seoul.
ECP operates from six offices globally, including two in Asia and four in the US. The company is headquartered in Summit, New Jersey.
The opening of the Tokyo office comes alongside the appointment of Yuki Asari as managing director & co-head of Asia investor relations to lead the firm’s investor relations, marketing, fundraising, and public activities.
Asari, who joined ECP in 2024, was previously with StepStone Group as a Managing Director in the Business Development team, focusing on providing investment solutions and client services to Japanese institutional investors in the infrastructure, private equity, private credit, and real estate space. Before his nearly-eight-year stint at StepStone Group, Asari worked at Neuberger Berman and JP Morgan in Japan.
The Tokyo office is expected to further bolster ECP’s investor engagement and fundraising capabilities in Japan, said the firm in a statement. The firm said that its move to build a local presence and the hire of Asari come as Japan has been a key area of growth for ECP.
Japan’s PE market has experienced remarkable growth in the past few years, with assets under management (AUM) reaching a record $46.3 billion as of December 2022. That nearly tripled the figure from a decade ago, according to Preqin data.
The development followed the formation of ECP’s strategic alliance with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in January 2023 to jointly focus on energy transition investment opportunities in Japan. As part of the deal, the Japanese firm made a non-voting investment in an affiliate of ECP and another investment in ECP’s flagship Infrastructure Fund V.
ECP Infrastructure Fund V, which primarily invests in unlisted companies in the electric power, energy transition, and environment infrastructure sectors in North America, initially targeted a final close in June 2023 at $4 billion, according to a notice released by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank at the time of the business alliance.
The PE firm hit the $4-billion fundraising target for the fifth flagship fund last year. But the fund remained in the market, eyeing a hard cap of $6 billion around Q1 2024, PEI Group-backed news platform Buyouts reported in September 2023 citing sources.
Founded in 2005, ECP has raised five flagship funds with investments across energy transition, electrification, and decarbonisation infrastructure assets. The ECP team of 88 people has made over 60 transactions over the 10 years, representing over $45 billion of combined enterprise value.
Some of its portfolio companies include Heartland Generation, Calpine, TerraGen Power Holdings II, Convergent Energy and Power, and Pivot Energy, according to its website. It is also affiliated with several power marketers and entities that own or control US power plants.
The US company has been seeking a merger with Bridgepoint Group, in which the London-based midmarket specialist will acquire ECP at an enterprise value of 835 million pounds ($1.06 billion) to create a PE group with assets of over $61 billion.
But this planned merger hit a red light last week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected the deal because the companies failed to show the transaction would not harm competition. The duo plans to re-file the application soon and close the deal in Q2 this year.
