Earlier this week, Partners Group, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, announced a majority investment in Gateway Fleets, a San Franciscobased provider of electrification services for logistics fleet operators in the US. The deal comes at a time when many stakeholders are doubling down on increasing electric vehicles to reduce the carbon footprint caused by internal combustion engines.
The EV fleet migration market is benefiting from multiple thematic tailwinds driving transformational change, including technological advancement reducing EV costs, increased corporate emphasis on decarbonization goals and strong e-commerce growth, read a press statement announcing the deal. The statement added that the US market for services to support the charging of EV fleets is expected to be worth $15 billion by 2030.
PE Hub caught up with Andre Burba, a managing director on Partners Group’s Infrastructure Americas team, to learn more about opportunities that the firm identified with this deal. Below are excerpts:
How did this deal come together?
Was Gateway Fleets for sale? We were introduced to the Gateway management team as they were seeking a financial partner to fund their capital program. After spending five years exploring the commercial fleet electrification space through our thematic research, we were attracted to Gateway’s business plan and impressed by the quality of its management team. Over the last year, we have worked together with the Gateway team to collaboratively refine their strategy.
How does this deal represent your investment thesis?
We firmly believe that certain segments of the commercial vehicle fleet universe will migrate to electric vehicles in the coming years. To date, the transition has faced several challenges, from vehicle availability to reliability of charging infrastructure. As EVs in certain applications are already at or below cost parity with internal combustion engines, we needed to find an investment target that mitigated many adoption challenges. We believe that Gateway’s business model does that and therefore fits with our investment thesis in this space.
