Nuveen Raises $1.3B in First Close for Energy Credit Fund II - InforCapital

New York (USA), August 13, 2025 — Nuveen has secured $1.3 billion in commitments for the first close of its Energy & Power Infrastructure Credit Fund II (EPIC II), a private credit strategy targeting $2.5 billion in total capital. The fund will finance projects and companies meeting the surging demand for energy and power driven by digitalization, electrification, and the reindustrialization of North America, Europe and other OECD economies.

EPIC II will provide directly originated credit solutions to support both conventional and sustainable energy infrastructure. Its mandate spans renewables, energy storage, hydrocarbons, midstream assets, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The strategy emphasizes investments with robust cash flow projections, backed by hard asset collateral, long-term contracts, and strong counterparties, while aiming to protect against inflationary and geopolitical risks.

The fund’s toolkit includes project and corporate financings, equipment funding, growth capital, acquisition loans, recapitalizations, and structured credit. Nuveen says the approach combines the stability of infrastructure assets with the structural flexibility of private credit, a mix that has resonated strongly with institutional investors worldwide.

“Bringing together the resiliency of infrastructure assets and the private credit playbook has unlocked a strong level of investor demand across the globe,” said Don Dimitrievich, Senior Managing Director & Portfolio Manager for Energy Infrastructure Credit. “We remain focused on deploying capital into resilient companies and projects that can deliver durable income potential while capturing this historic market opportunity.”

Investors in the first close include a leading Canadian pension fund manager, TIAA, and global insurers, along with Japanese and Korean public and corporate pensions and asset managers. Nearly half of the commitments came from outside the U.S., underscoring the global appetite for infrastructure debt strategies.

EPIC II builds on the performance of EPIC I and is managed by Nuveen’s Energy Infrastructure Credit (EIC) platform, a 13-person team averaging 20 years’ experience and more than $13 billion invested across multiple market cycles. As of March 31, 2025, Nuveen’s infrastructure platform oversaw more than $35 billion in assets.

Comparable moves in the market: Infrastructure debt has been drawing increasing interest from global managers. In 2024, Brookfield Asset Management closed its $4 billion Global Infrastructure Debt Fund IV, targeting energy transition and digital infrastructure projects. Around the same time, Macquarie Asset Management launched a $3.5 billion debt platform focused on renewable energy and grid resilience in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Earlier this year, BlackRock reached a $2.7 billion first close for its Global Infrastructure Debt Fund V, citing strong demand from pensions seeking inflation-linked returns. Analysts say EPIC II’s blended approach across both clean and conventional energy assets positions it competitively in this increasingly crowded space.