Glennmont Partners, one of Europe's largest fund managers focusing exclusively on investment in clean energy infrastructure, has successfully closed its second fund, Clean Energy Fund II, having raised €500 million, the maximum amount permitted, exceeding its target of €450 million.
The life of the fund is ten years and the fundraising has been supported both by existing and new investors, including the European Investment Bank (EIB) which invested €50 million, the single largest clean energy equity investment it made in 2013. With its second fund, Glennmont has attracted capital from new territories and now has investors in its funds based across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia.
Commenting on the final close of its second fund, Glennmont Managing Partner Joost Bergsma said:
"We were previously a specialist team working within other institutions, but having established Glennmont we are now a specialist independent partner and our investors value that. We have now fully invested our first fund, building on our existing track record as an independent company. The oversubscribed nature of our second fund raising, and the breadth and calibre of our investors, is a clear signal that the markets appetite for yield and long term capital appreciation remains healthy."
Glennmont was founded last year as a spin-off from BNP Paribas Investment Partners. It manages long-term capital to invest in alternative power generation projects focusing on proven technologies such as wind, biomass, solar and small-scale hydro across the UK and continental Europe. Glennmont's first fund has operating infrastructure projects in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy and Portugal totalling 354MW collectively
Bergsma added:
"Our team is already assessing a number of high quality investment opportunities and we're ready to continue to grow by backing only carefully selected, risk managed investments. The closing of our second fund reflects investor confidence in our ability to deliver sustained performance and predictable returns.
Glennmont Partners had announced a first close in August 2013 when it had raised €200 million.