‘Landmark’ 80m to be invested in waste sector

Business Secretary Vince Cable today (April 25)announced plans to invest a ‘landmark’ 80 million in small-scale waste infrastructure.

UK Green Investments,a specialist team within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), has committed the money to two specialist fund managers.

“These first investments are a landmark moment”

Vince Cable

The fund managers will be responsible for generating and managing investments in infrastrucutre such as waste recycling and reprocessing facilities, pre-treatment and energy-from-waste plants.

An initial fund of 50 million will be managed by Foresight Group and an initial 30 million by Greensphere Capital. All BIS investments made by the fund managers will be match-funded, leveraging in at least 80 million more to the projects.

Discussions with potential recipients have already begun and investments are set to be made from this month (see letsrecycle.com story). The maximum amount of individual investments is not likely to exceed 15 million.

‘Landmark’

The 80 million represents the first investment to be madeby the UK Green Investments team, which is managing investment in green infrastructure until the Green Investment Bank receives state aid approval.

The Bank will be supporting a wide range of green projects including commercial and industrial waste processing and recycling; energy from waste generation; offshore wind generation; non-domestic energy efficiency; and support for the Green Deal.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: These first investments are a landmark moment. They represent a great opportunity to unlock substantial commercial investment in green technologies and infrastructure. The Government has committed to setting the UK firmly on course towards a green and growing economy and today is another important step in that direction.

Investing directly now shows that we are not just sitting on our hands while we wait for the UK Green Investment Bank to receive state aid approval.

Foresight

Foresight Group is an independent asset manager, with more than 650m assets under management, focused on environmental, infrastructure and private equity investing. The Group has an existing 125m investment portfolio of recycling and waste to energy companies and has been focusing on the waste and environmental sector since 2006.

Andrew Page, partner and head of Environmental at Foresight said: We are delighted to have been selected by UKGI to invest in UK companies utilising proven technologies to support the development of the waste sector, making the most of the valuable resources within waste streams, contributing to achieving the UKs environmental targets and creating a substantial number of jobs across the country.

Foresight also manages the innovative Foresight Environmental Fund, on behalf of the London Green Fund, the European Investment Bank and the European Commission’s Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA).

Greensphere Capital LLP is a specialist investment firm focused on sustainable energy and infrastructure. It specialises in supporting investments that enable current infrastructure to function more efficiently and on a more sustainable basis. In the waste infrastructure sector, Greensphere has enlisted the support of the Environmental Infrastructure Development Company Limited (EIDC), a specialist developer of waste and waste-to-energy projects.

ESA

Todays announcement was welcomed by the Environmental Services Association (ESA), the trade association for the UKs waste management industry.

ESAs director of policy, Matthew Farrow, said: ESA is pleased that the Government is investing 80 million in the waste sector, which will be a key contributor to the green growth the country needs.

This investment should help to bring forward some smaller-scale waste and recycling projects, however, it is larger-scale projects that will provide the bang for the buck that will make a real environmental difference and which urgently need Green Investment Bank support. New waste infrastructure is rightly recognised by the Green Investment Bank as a key priority and ESA hopes that the GIB will continue to focus on delivering the residual waste infrastructure the country needs.”