Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT ) has raced out a £250m fund raise ahead of maiden half-year results next week as its managers rapidly run out of cash from last November’s sought after £400m flotation.

So far the company has completed eight investments worth £256m, but the managers expect to complete two more deals worth £87m in the fourth quarter. They are also doing advanced due diligence on a further four investments of £170m, which will exceed the amount raised in the initial public offer ten months ago.

Beyond this they say there is a potential investment pipeline of over £320m, underlining the need for more cash.

Richard Sem, fund manager and Pantheon Venture partner, said: ‘The volume and quality of infrastructure investment opportunities that we are reviewing at Pantheon continues to grow, allowing us to choose attractive transactions that we anticipate will provide the best risk adjusted returns for PINT.

‘The defensive characteristics of core infrastructure, typically including long-term contracts, inflation protection and stable cash-flow generation makes these investments especially attractive in the current uncertain environment,’ he said.

The C-share issue will give private and professional investors who did not get their full allocation in the oversubscribed launch nearly a year ago another bite at the cherry. 

Funds raised in the 100p per C-share offer will initially back a separate pool of assets before the shares are converted into ordinary shares once the money is invested. This avoids the danger of ‘cash drag’ weighing down returns for ordinary shareholders while the cash is deployed.

The company has not yet published a net asset value for its investments but this will be included in the half-year results expected on 21 September, well before the subscription deadline of 5 October.

If investor demand is strong, the board can lift the C-share issue to £350m and launch a separate £70m placing to institutional investors.   

Chairman Vagn Sørensen claimed the company had access to a ‘unique funnel of core infrastructure’ investment opportunities alongside a range of leading private asset managers made available to Pantheon Ventures.

PINT is targeting a total annual investment return of 8-10% once fully invested with a dividend of 2p per share this year. This will rise to 4p next year and grow progressively after that in line with the increase in inflation-linked revenues it receives from its investments.

So far just over half the portfolio’s assets are in the UK and Europe, with 46% in North America. Digital infrastructure makes up the largest sector weighting at 43%, or £147m, followed by a 35% in private power and utilities assets.

The most recent addition to the portfolio was a £40m purchase of a 50% stake in Dutch electricity company Fudura in July. 

The four investments in advanced due diligence are:

• UK renewables and energy efficiency asset (£50m);
• European mobile towers network (£40m);
• North American data centre (£40m);
• European power and utilities asset (£40m).

‘We are delighted with the portfolio that has been assembled for the Company to date, comprising a diversified array of infrastructure businesses across sub-sectors and geographies,’ said Sørensen.

PINT shares dipped 0.5p to 102.5p today. They listed at 100p.