Tech pioneers are the focus for Green Bank’s private owner
MACQUARIE has sealed its £2.3bn privatisation of the Green Investment Bank by pledging to increase its investment in emerging technologies such as electric vehicle charging, batteries and low-carbon heating.
The Australian bank said it would bring its “pioneering spirit” to channel more funds into development-phase innovations than the investor was able to do under Government control.
“We will continue to invest in what has been done to date, such as offshore wind and energy from waste,” said Edward Northam, the new head of the group. “But we also want to remain true to Macquarie’s pioneering spirit by supporting newer and emerging technologies.”
The Green Investment Bank was set up by the Government in 2012 to support low-carbon innovation, but under private control it will be able to enter the market at an earlier, and riskier, development stage.
The Australian bank, derisively referred to as the “vampire kangaroo”, has been forced to defend its intentions against fears that the privatisation would undermine the Green Investment Bank’s environmental mission in favour of profits.
Macquarie has since vowed to invest £3bn over the next three years in accordance with the existing investment methodology.
James Court, of the Renewable Energy Association, said the focus on early-stage projects could reap major benefits for technologies where the investment community is still hesitant. “We still believe there are more technologies that have a huge future if backed. The new owners should be more ambitious in the bank’s aim of providing finance to early-stage innovative technologies,” he said.
Under Mr Northam, the Green Investment Bank will be rebranded the Green Investment Group to comply with red tape beyond the UK, where it hopes to extend its influence.
The renewables investment veteran said that the group would remain “fundamentally opportunistic” in providing capital to projects that have earned backing, but much of its focus will remain in the “healthy UK market”.
“We have an excellent energy and infrastructure business in the UK,” said Mark Dooley, Macquarie’s energy and infrastructure boss.
“But we could have a much bigger business. We want to step it up. [In the Green Investment Bank] we see a group of people with decades of experience in renewable energy investment and a fantastic brand, which resonates extremely well with public and private sectors.”
Mr Dooley also played down concerns over potential job losses and asset sales, saying that both would be kept to a minimum.
Lord Smith of Kelvin, the chairman of the Green Investment Bank until the completion of the transaction, said under Macquarie ownership the business would have the support it needs “to deliver a growing green impact, at home in the UK and now abroad”.
“I’m confident that with this support the Green Investment Bank, nurtured so well through its early years by the UK Government, will go on to bigger and better things,” he said.