New fund for large investors to focus on uranium, mining, nuclear industry

An investment company in Luxembourg has created a wide-ranging nuclear energy and nuclear fuel focused investment fund, known as Triton, for institutional and large private investors, seeking to take advantage of growing interest in the energy source.

Triton, part of the Trident Investment umbrella organization in Luxembourg, has already raised money and reportedly has invested or is about to invest in physical uranium, but wants to provide a fund allowing large investors to select a variety of nuclear-related areas for investment.

"It could be, for example, mining. It could be potentially access to enrichment facilities or conversion facilities, but it could go as far as an investor putting their funds in and saying 'we really want to build a whole fleet of small modular reactors, even large reactors, in a public-private partnership,'" Patrick Franz, managing director of PFYN Capital,, said in an interview. PFYN Capital, based in Switzerland, is the asset management fund advising the Triton fund.

PFYN has been speaking to nuclear fuel industry participants for some time, learning what existing companies want and what investment needs they might have.

"Physical uranium is probably one of the easiest parts to pick up in the nuclear fuel cycle," Franz said. A specific investment approach under Triton has already garnered investor commitments, he said.

A growing number of publicly traded funds and hedge funds have invested in physical uranium as enthusiasm for nuclear power and recent underinvestment in uranium mining and exploration have created concerns of a supply gap in coming years.

The Triton fund sponsors wants to ultimately provide a way for accredited investors and institutions to invest directly in uranium mining as well, which will give investors access to the start of the supply chain, Franz said.

In a conversation with S&P Global Commodity Insights April 9, Franz spoke of "investing into a junior miner or any of those possibilities or even an existing facility," saying "there is nothing stopping us from doing this, and we will be investing into these projects. It's just as vital as having a certain contingency of U3O8 in our storage accounts."

In the next five years, the fund seeks to build partnerships with existing uranium producers and new mine developers, the company added in an email April 15.

Uranium supply may take some time to catch up with demand given recent underinvestment, it added. "Diversifying our uranium supply is of high interest for us," the company noted.

Newcomers in uranium enrichment, conversion

Investment opportunities could exist in uranium conversion and enrichment, Franz added.

"The barriers to entry are sky high" in some parts of the nuclear fuel supply chain businesses such as that, Franz conceded. There could be opportunities, however, where newcomers to the market with a proven technology need financing to enter the market, he said.

The fund could, on behalf of its investors, take a private equity-like position as well as supplying debt funding, Franz said. It even sees the possibility of getting involved in support of a broad public-private partnership to deploy small reactors, for example, he said.

The growing intertest in green bonds that would support nuclear projects is an area in which the fund could also get involved, Franz said.

"We are all looking at each step in the nuclear fuel cycle right now, but it does take time," he added.

Potential customers of the fund include banks, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family offices, Franz said. Since word has spread of the company's new focus on nuclear energy and nuclear fuel, PFYN has received a significant amount of interest from investors.

The enthusiasm for nuclear power in the past two to three years has boosted that interest. "The timing could not be any better," he said of the launch.

The nuclear fund portfolio employs about 20 people now, including several in Luxembourg where the fund is officially based. PFYN has offices in Singapore and Geneva.

"Having roots in Asia, and having established a strong presence in Europe in the past years, we have a global outlook" and are familiar with regional compliance requirements, Yan Ng, director of PFYN Capital, said in the company email. "As a result, we believe we can bring highly bespoke and effective solutions to investors across GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council countries), Europe, India, South East Asia and the Far East," he added.

The company declined to disclose the amount of money raised or targeted for the fund.