Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset management group, today is aimingto manage at least EUR5 billion of AUM, dedicated exclusively to the fight against climate change, by 2025.
Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset management group, today is aimingto manage at least EUR5 billion of AUM, dedicated exclusively to the fight against climate change, by 2025.
This will provide Tikehau Capital with sizeable means to invest in companies and projects driving the decarbonisation of the economy to a more sustainable future. This significant commitment demonstrates the continued ambition of the Group to invest global savings towards a more resilient and inclusive economy, creating sustainable value for all.
For almost ten years, Tikehau Capital has been financing companies that actively support the energy transition, already attracting more than EUR1.5 billion in capital commitments to combat climate change across multiple investment strategies including private equity, private debt and capital markets strategies.
These strategies are classified “Article 9” as per the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), a set of EU rules which aim to make the sustainability profile of funds more comparable and better understood by end-investors. Going forward, the investment strategies that will allow Tikehau Capital to fulfil its ambition to exceed EUR5bn of AUM dedicated to the fight against climate change by 2025 will all be classified “Article 9” as per the SFDR.
As part of Tikehau Capital’s continued commitment to furthering a positive climate agenda, the Group has also today launched the Climate Action Centre, a platform that will harness financial innovation and focus on decarbonisation, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and food, the circular economy and sustainable consumption. The Climate Action Centre will initially convene more than 30 investment professionals, ESG experts and senior advisors who are already working to deploy existing climate-focused investment strategies. In the coming months, the Centre will be strengthened with the addition of several climate and sustainable finance specialists.
The Climate Action Centre will be headed by Pierre Abadie, who has been appointed Group Climate Director, in addition to his existing role as Co-head of Tikehau Capital’s T2 Energy Transition Private Equity fund. Pierre will work closely with Cécile Cabanis, Group Deputy CEO, to ensure that the Group’s climate-related objectives are fully integrated into Tikehau Capital’s impact strategy and ESG approach.
Pierre Abadie, Group Climate Director of Tikehau Capital, says: “The decarbonisation of our economy is essential in limiting global warming to below 1.5°C. With the launch of the Climate Action Centre, we want to accelerate our commitment towards combatting climate change across our investment strategies with the objective of contributing to halving CO2 emissions by 2030.”
These developments demonstrate Tikehau Capital’s ambition to build upon its existing expertise and advance its efforts in tackling the climate emergency. The Group is a longstanding pioneer of climate action, as demonstrated by the numerous initiatives launched over the past decade, including:
• A series of investments in renewable energy providers that have collectively contributed close to 5 gigawatts of production capacity.
• The launch of the T2 Energy Transition Private Equity fund in 2018, one of the first funds singularly committed to the energy transition and the decarbonisation of the economy. To date, the Europe-focused climate strategy, which manages more than EUR1 billion, has deployed more than EUR500 million by investing in nine SMEs and SMIs driving the energy transition.
• The launch of several dedicated climate-focused investment strategies, including an impact lending private debt fund and a high-yield impact credit fund, both of which are designed to finance companies which have the potential to enable the global shift towards a net zero carbon economy.
• In March 2021, Tikehau Capital successfully issued its inaugural sustainable bond issuance raising EUR500 million, the first public sustainable benchmark bond issued by an alternative asset management firm in Europe. The proceeds of the bond, which was placed with more than 100 investors globally, will be used to invest in sustainable assets or in the Group’s ESG-focused investment funds. Following this successful issuance, and taking into account the refinancing of the Group’s undrawn revolving credit facility in July 2021, ESG-linked debt account for around 60 per cent of the Group’s total debt to date.
• In April 2021, Tikehau Capital announced the launch of a private equity strategy dedicated to decarbonisation in North America that aims to replicate the success and investment philosophy of the European T2 Energy Transition private equity fund.
Antoine Flamarion and Mathieu Chabran, co-fouders of Tikehau Capital, say: “We strongly believe that we can have a significant impact on climate change through our investment approach, which is why we are committing to increase our investment in fighting the climate emergency. With the launch of our Climate Action Centre, we want to channel the Group’s expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and agility towards the decarbonisation of the economy. Pierre Abadie’s climate expertise and conviction, combined with the teams that are working across our climate strategies, will be key to the success of this major project.”
