Energy PE Firm Kayne Anderson Launches Renewable Infrastructure Index

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, a private equity investment firm focused on energy and infrastructure, has launched the Kayne Anderson Renewable Infrastructure Index (KRII) in conjunction with S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The renewable index fund is a modified floated-adjusted market cap weighted index comprised of public wind, solar and energy storage companies, which stand to benefit from the energy transition toward decarbonization.

“Just like Kayne Anderson helped establish the MLP (Master Limited Partnership) sector, Kayne is proud to collaborate with S&P Dow Jones Indices to launch what we believe will be the index that helps define the sector as an asset class,” said Jim Baker, co-head of Kayne’s energy infrastructure platform.

The index is heavily weighted by renewable power producer companies (32%), clean-energy focused utilities (26%), project developers (19%), solar and wind energy YieldCo’s (14%), and biomass and other infrastructure technologies (9%).

By region, the fund is weighted by company geography of the U.S. (38%), Europe (32%), Canada (18%), Australia and the Asia-Pacific region (12%).

The fund’s top five US and Canadian holdings are NextEra Energy, Clearway Energy Group, AES Corporation, TransAlta and Brookfield Renewable Partners, with these companies representing 22.3% of the new ETF’s holdings.

“The energy transition is a global megatrend that will benefit the renewable infrastructure sector for the next several decades,” said J.C. Frey, co-head of Kayne’s renewable infrastructure strategies.

The firm began investing in listed renewable infrastructure in 2013 and established its first dedicated renewable infrastructure fund in 2017. Currently, Kayne manages approximately $1.5bn in listed renewable infrastructure.