Victory Hill Capital Partners has shifted strategy to build its global private equity and infrastructure equity portfolio in sustainable energy
Eduardo Monteiro and Navin Chauhan, Victory Hill Capital Partners
Eduardo Monteiro, Managing Partner and CIO–Private Equity, co-founded Victory Hill Capital Partners in 2020. The London-based firm focuses on making direct private equity and infrastructure equity investments in sustainable energy globally.
Eduardo was previously acting Head of EMEA in Mizuho Bank’s Natural Resources Corporate Finance Advisory Unit and a founding principal of the bank’s Energy Special Situations Group.
Navin Chauhan is Managing Partner and Chief Commercial Officer. He previously worked in the Investment Trust Sales Team at Cantor Fitzgerald, and before that at Quilter, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Russell Investments, and Deutsche Bank.
They talked with Shaun Beaney, Editor of Preqin First Close, about the ‘missing middle’ – financing $50–100mn deals in the energy transition, the sustainable energy mix, and their shift from managing a listed investment trust to focusing on private markets.
How did you create Victory Hill Capital Partners in 2020?
Eduardo Monteiro: I previously worked at Mizuho Bank. When I first went there, they were a lender with a big energy presence, but they had an interest in becoming a trusted advisor, to get more involved than just with their balance sheet. We were working with a very selective client base, mostly blue-chip, investment-grade names.
One of the things we observed was that these big energy groups, with their trading arms, were interacting with a new breed of energy players who were more middle market in size and focus. We created a special unit within Mizuho to advise this middle market and deploy capital.
Our strategy for Victory Hill Capital Partners in 2020 started with this DNA – understanding the needs of the energy markets, the big energy companies, and how they could add value to projects, but focusing on the middle-market cohort that was not getting attention or quality of service.
We constituted a portfolio to raise a fund. The potential returns were very clear, very visible – how we were going to create alpha versus the risk profile.
What’s your core investment philosophy and strategy?
Navin Chauhan: My background was understanding the funds space, particularly closed-end, from the buy side and the sell side – from being an investor, being in research, participating in IPOs, and raising money. I knew the market well, particularly within alternatives, including infrastructure, private equity, renewables, etc.
It felt as though investors were being tuned to understand the energy transition as a developed-market phenomenon – subsidized, highly leveraged, with somewhat low returns. The Victory Hill team brought experience of doing deals around the world, understanding middle markets, and how you build platforms and bring in bigger players.
We constituted a portfolio, bringing our expertise and connectivity, and creating a truly global, diversified sustainable energy portfolio. We call it ‘sustainable energy’ because we believe it’s not just renewables that will make an impact.
You manage a London-listed investment trust. Why was that your initial route and what businesses have you financed so far?
Navin: The closed investment funds market is perpetual in nature. It’s evergreen money. That allows you to continue to raise capital, to continue to deploy and grow these platforms, to really make an impact as you gain size.
We have midstream assets, such as terminal storage tanks in Texas. We have a natural gas-fired power plant in the UK with carbon capture and reuse, where we are monetizing much of the waste product. We have solar photovoltaic (PV) assets and a hydro plant in Brazil. We have onshore wind and solar assets in Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, and hybridized solar PV and co-located battery storage in Australia. There is innovation, but we’re not taking technology bets.
What’s behind your shift in strategy to private capital, including growth equity and US midstream energy?
Eduardo: There are several factors. There's a big capital requirement to transform energy systems. There’s the decentralization of energy. In the past, you'd build a coal plant or a nuclear plant and then create all the infrastructure to get the energy to end users. Now there are technologies to build solar batteries and wind combined in various locations, close to points of consumption.
Our remit is global, but we only look at liberalized markets where you can position your investment in a way that you’re providing a solution to the transformation. Private capital needs to be active in the energy transition. Governments cannot do that as they're fiscally constrained. There are a lot of opportunities. The middle market will scale up these solutions and then they’ll become widely available.
Navin: The energy transition is a structural, multi-decade investment theme. Structural underinvestment is creating once-in-a-generation opportunities for stable, strategic capital that understands this.
You’ve previously talked about the ‘missing middle’. What is it?
Navin: There’s a lot of money being raised within energy, renewable energy, and sustainability. There are $10bn, $20bn, $30bn funds raised. But they cannot look at opportunities between $50mn and $100mn. The investments they’re making are ticket sizes of $250–500mn-plus.
Where there’s decentralization of the grid, and the middle-market focus, opportunities are being overlooked around the world. They require local solutions – investors who understand the dislocations, the markets, and what’s needed. That’s where we come in, by working with the middle market and helping bring the capital to scale them up, so they’ll be attractive to that big capital. It comes from a returns perspective and making an impact as well. Ultimately, that’s the missing middle.
How do you originate deals around the world?
Eduardo: We’ve been originating since our days at Mizuho, where we were working with the energy companies. We've done more than $200bn worth of energy deals. We’ve done cross-border deals, we’ve worked with advisors, consultants, and law firms. There are many inquiries from our network about opportunities.
We are contacted because someone is running a process for capital raise or the sale of a middle-market company. We show our understanding of the market, and we demonstrate what we’re going to do with our capital once we come in, how we’re going to help you create value and position the asset. It creates a lot of interest.
Shaun Beaney is Editor of Preqin First Close. It’s quick, easy, and free to subscribe here.
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The views expressed are the opinions of Victory Hill Capital Partners LLP as of January 2026. They do not constitute an endorsement, recommendation, or any other advice, and are subject to change. The content does not necessarily express the views of BlackRock, Preqin, or any of their affiliates. Victory Hill Capital Partners is not affiliated with Preqin.