Swiss private markets investment management company Partners Group has sold its stake in Japan Solar, a 610 MW platform of Japanese solar power assets. The stake was sold to a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Partners Group invested alongside Equis Group (since January part of GIP) to acquire its initial stake in Japan Solar in 2013, shortly after the Japanese government introduced a Feed-in Tariff to encourage investment in the renewable energy sector. Partners Group and others invested an initial $250 million to fund the construction of utility-scale power plants across the country. Japan Solar partnered with Nippon Renewable Energy, today one of Japan's largest independent solar utility businesses, to support the build-out of the platform. Partners Group made a further equity investment into Japan Solar during the holding period, making it the largest shareholder in the platform, says the company. At the time the sale to GIP was agreed, Japan Solar consisted of 27 secured projects totaling more than 610 MW of capacity, of which over 200 MW was operational and contracted into long-term power purchase agreements with Japanese electric utility companies.

Earlier in January, Partners Group announced it had agreed to sell its ownership stake in Silicon Ranch Corporation, a leading developer, owner and operator of solar energy facilities in the US, to Shell. Global Infrastructure recently announced the closing of the sale of Equis Energy for an enterprise value of $5.0 billion.