Investec looks to funding solar power as double winner for its clients
● Investec is planning funding for privatebanking clients in SA to install solar power at home to help its customer base lower its carbon footprint while at the same time avoid recurrent power cuts.
The product, to be tried out from September, advises customers on installation and pricing, and allows them to link the cost to their home loans as a repayment option.
The service is one of several initiatives the lender is exploring to capitalise on carbonefficient behaviour, Investec’s head of sustainability, Tanya dos Santos, said.
“First and foremost, our aim is to recognise that there are not only risks to climate change,” she said. “There are also many business opportunities.”
The cost of installing solar panels and storage batteries at an average suburban house in SA ranges from about R110,000 to R250,000.
Instead of shunning lending activities linked to fossil fuels, as other finance firms have done, Investec’s goal is to urge clients to invest in cleaner technologies and businesses by making it attractive for them to do so.
South African companies are coming under increasing pressure from shareholders to improve their disclosures about greenhouse gas emissions.
While FirstRand and Standard Bank Group have committed to making such disclosures, they have pushed back against tight schedules demanded by activists, saying more time is needed to assess lending in Africa, where data can be sketchy.
Investec is now disclosing its fossil-fuel lending exposure and will do so annually. Standard Bank expects to report on the climate risk in its lending by year-end.
Investec’s work is more advanced in markets beyond SA.
In July it arranged for a €600m (R12.3bn) loan to Investindustrial Advisors.
The facility offers reduced interest payments to the borrower when certain environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals are met.
This month it launched an ESG-linked deposit plan to clients in the UK.
Investec’s renewable-energy fund, Revego Africa Energy, will list on the JSE later this year after delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dos Santos said.