22 November 2021

Aquila European Renewables Income Fund awarded 4-star GRESB Green Rating

Aquila European Renewables Income Fund PLC ('AERIF') today announced the results of its first annual GRESB Assessment for 2021.

The GRESB Assessment is an objective investor-driven global ESG benchmark and reporting framework assessing the performance of real estate and infrastructure funds, companies, and assets. The results provide investors with standardised data to help evaluate complex sustainability issues. GRESB is an important industry benchmark as it can help to protect shareholder value by evaluating and improving the sustainability performance of real assets, on asset level (operating assets only) and portfolio level.

In its first year of participating in the GRESB assessment, AERIF achieved a four out of a five-star rating. With an overall GRESB Score of 84 the fund scores above the GRESB average of 77 points.

At portfolio level, the rating shows a particularly strong performance in Stakeholder Engagement and Leadership compared to the peer group. At asset level, meanwhile, the rating recognises AERIF's strong policy frameworks as well as its performance in resource and emission management including water, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy.

Ian Nolan, chair of Aquila European Renewables Income Fund PLC, said: "Given the high importance of this global assessment, we are pleased to have been awarded a 4-star GRESB rating in our first year of participation. AERIF's objective is to provide investors with a truly diversified portfolio of renewable assets and we appreciate that our efforts are seen and valued through this objective, external review. Performing so strongly in our first year, we are even more motivated than before to growing our fund further based on our vision and ESG principles".

The rating further demonstrates that Aquila Capital, the funds' adviser, is well equipped with its group wide policy framework and in-house asset management to enable strong performance in stakeholder engagement, risk management and leadership in ESG. Aquila Capital will continue to improve its systems and frameworks leading to potentially even better GRESB ratings and performance in the coming years.

Established by investors in 2009, GRESB is used by more than 140 institutional investors to monitor their investments, engage with their managers and make informed decisions. Currently, the portfolios of more than 1,500 real estate companies, REITs, funds and developers and more than 700 infrastructure funds and asset operators participate in GRESB Assessments. This broad market coverage provides investors with ESG data and benchmarks for more than $6.4 trillion worth of assets under management.

For further details contact: 

Media contacts: 

Smithfield Consultants 

Ged Brumby | 020 3047 2527 

John Kiely | 020 3047 2538 

Andrew McLagan | 020 3047 2006 

Sponsor, Broker and Placing Agent  

Numis Securities 020 7260 1000 

Tod Davis  

David Benda  

Vicki Paine  

NOTES 

About AERIF

Aquila European Renewables Income Fund plc ("AERIF" or the "Company") is a London-listed renewable energy infrastructure investment company with the aim to provide investors with an attractive long-term, income-based return in EUR through a diversified portfolio of hydropower, onshore wind and solar PV investments across continental Europe and Ireland. Through the diversification of generation technologies, the seasonal production patterns of these asset types complete each other to balance the cash flow, while the geographic diversification serves to reduce exposure to one single energy market. AERIF is targeting 5.0 cents per ordinary share in relation to the financial year ending 31 December 2021, with the aim of increasing this dividend progressively over the medium term. 

Further details can be found on AERIFs website at www.aquila-european-renewables-income-fund.com 

About GRESB

Created in 2009, GRESB is the global ESG benchmark for financial markets. In 2021, GRESB BV - a benefit corporation - began the process of establishing an independent, not-for-profit GRESB Foundation to own and govern the standards upon which GRESB Assessments are based. The GRESB Infrastructure Asset Assessment provides the basis for systematic reporting, objective scoring and peer benchmarking of ESG management and performance of infrastructure assets around the world. Both single and multi-asset operators can participate and the process leads to deep data insights for investors, fund managers and asset operators. The data is self-reported by Assessment participants between April 1 and July 1 each year and subjected to a multi-layer validation process after which it is scored and benchmarked. The result is high-quality data that investors and participants can use in their investment and decision-making processes.

Further details can be found on GRESBs website at https://gresb.com/nl-en/infrastructure-asset-assessment/