Infrastructure investor Macquarie wrote to the British minister three years ago to confirm that he had funded a multi-billion pound eco-friendly project as part of a deal to buy a green investment group from the government.
The Australian company promises to fund £ 3 billion in green energy projects in the UK and Europe in three years after the acquisition of £ 1.6bn of the group then known as Green Investment Banking in August 2017.
By October 2020, Macquarie said the group had agreed to raise £ 4.7 billion in the UK and Europe and £ 6.9 billion worldwide. About £ 3.1bn of this funding is in the UK.
In a letter to British Energy Minister Kwasi Kwaten, Macquarie Capital’s Global Co-Head and Chairman of the Green Investment Group, Daniel Won, “remained true to his original mission.” Said.
The letter states that its growth “reflects the purpose of the UK government, freely increases the sectors and technologies in which GIG operates, invests higher levels of capital in green projects and exports the UK. We allow our business to expand internationally in order to do so. ” Success stories abroad “.
The bank was established in 2012 under a coalition government to draw private capital into offshore wind farms, waste power plants, and energy conservation projects.
We started the sales process three and a half years later to reduce public debt. The government also concluded that the market had sufficient private capital and banks were at risk of joining the competition in this sector, according to a report by the National Audit Office on the sale.
By the time it was sold in 2017, the bank had invested in 100 projects with a total transaction value of £ 12 billion and equity capital of £ 3.4 billion.
However, NAO concluded that “not enough information was available to claim the extent to which GIG was responsible for the growth of the green economy since 2012.”
With more than half of its investment capital directed to wind farms, according to a recent World Wind Energy Association work energy report, the UK is now the world leader in offshore capacity.
The sale of the bank was widely criticized by lawmakers, including then-Liberal Democratic Party leader Vince Cable, and questioned Macquarie’s commitment to environmental projects.
However, Mark Dooly, Global Head of Green Investment Group, said GIG had “finished its job” at the time of the sale. He said the UK remains one of the “most investable energy and infrastructure markets in the world”.
Since the acquisition of the bank, Macquarie “is more than offered and has triggered the private capital markets to support the renewable energy market,” he added.
It currently resides in 25 countries and employs 450 staff, including 40 in Edinburgh. There is an increasing demand for early investment in development and construction processes, including renewable energy storage.
Dooly pointed out the surge in corporate customers. These include Tesco, which works with GIG to install solar energy in many UK facilities, and Amazon, which recently announced plans to invest in 127 solar and wind projects, the world’s largest companies. It has become one of the buyers. Green energy.
He said the government’s plans to set up another UK infrastructure bank, which is expected to look a lot like GIG, could work if it invested in early-stage technology that was struggling to raise money. Said. The government has promised to release details in the spring.
Source: Financial Times
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