Climate Change Capital, an investment banking group dedicated to investment in clean energy and the low carbon economy, has announced the close of the Climate Change Capital Private Equity
Climate Change Capital, an investment banking group dedicated to investment in clean energy and the low carbon economy, has announced the close of the Climate Change Capital Private Equity fund at EUR200m, one of the largest such funds in Europe.
The fund is targeting the high growth clean technology areas of clean power, clean transport, energy efficiency, waste recovery and water across Europe. It invests its funds in expansion and later stage companies including buyouts.
The investment team, comprising partners Alex Betts, Bruno Derungs and Simon Drury, has a combined experience of more than 50 years in private equity and more than 20 years in clean technology investment.
Betts was formerly a partner at Montagu Private Equity and head of corporate venture capital at Royal Dutch Shell, Derungs was previously a principal at SAM Private Equity and managing director of Swiss venture capital firm ATV, and Drury was a partner at Charterhouse Capital Partners.
Investors in the fund include AlpInvest, Robeco, HSBC, USS, Alliance Trust, Bankinter, Wölbern Group and Harcourt.
‘It is gratifying that our fund has found such enthusiastic investor support,’ Drury says. ‘The European clean technology market offers the potential for excellent returns, and we are confident that we will be seen as a partner of choice by companies in this market, whose growth we feel we can support both through capital and access to Climate Change Capital’s international network.’
The close of the Climate Change Capital Private Equity fund is another milestone in the firm’s investment management business and takes its assets under management to more than USD1.5bn.
In 2005 the bank, which was founded two years earlier, launched Ventus VCT and its first carbon fund, C4FI, followed in 2006 by the twin funds Ventus 2 VCT and Ventus 3 VCT. Last year Climate Change Capital also announced the close of C4FII, the world’s largest private sector carbon fund at EUR800m.
‘The close of the CPE fund confirms our market position as one of the leading investment banking and asset management firms focused on clean technologies and the low carbon economies,’ says chief executive Mark Woodall.
‘We are furthering our reach and knowledge in this very high growth and important sector and we look forward to developing further funds to direct capital to de-carbonise our economies.’
The Climate Change Capital Private Equity fund has a 10-year life and an initial five-year investment period. The targeted investment size is between EUR5m and EUR20m per portfolio company, typically as a lead or co-lead investor and with active board participation.
According to the firm, global investment in clean technology totalled USD5.8bn in 2006, an increase of 58 per cent from the previous year. In March this year the 27 EU member states agreed on a binding target that 20 per cent of energy consumption should come from renewable sources by 2020, and agreed to cut carbon dioxide emission levels by 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Climate Change Capital focuses on the commercial opportunities created by the low carbon economy. It develops and manages funds that invest in greenhouse gas reduction projects and their underlying assets, primarily in the developing world. The funds, which have more than EUR800m under management, also invest in companies that provide technologies or services facilitating emission reductions.
The group also develops and manages funds that invest in companies, projects and technologies that provide products or services facilitating climate change mitigation or adaptation. Through the Ventus group of listed venture capital trusts and the Climate Change Capital Private Equity Fund, the firm has more than EUR250m in assets under management for investing in clean technology, clean fuels and renewable energy.
Climate Change Capital also provides financial, strategic and policy advice to energy-intensive industries, financial institutions, clean technology companies and governments.
