BackThe Marguerite Fund, the European Investment Bank-backed infrastructure investor seeking to raise 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by the end of June, will spend about 100 million euros on renewable energy this year.
The fund, also financed by institutions including Germany’s Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, plans to invest as much as 45 percent of the money it raises in renewables, Nicolas Merigo, chief executive officer of Marguerite Adviser SA, said by phone. Each investment may be about 25 million to 100 million euros for 10 percent to 50 percent stakes, he said in an interview.
Others backing the fund, which raised 710 million euros in 2010 for transportation, conventional energy and renewables, are Caisse des Depots et Consignations, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA, Instituto de Credito Oficial and PKO Bank Polski SA.
The European Union is seeking to spur investment in clean power as it aims to derive 20 percent of its energy use from renewable sources by 2020. Cutting greenhouse gases from the EU energy industry is “technically and economically feasible,” the European Commission said in a policy paper on Dec. 15.
The Marguerite Fund, a short name for the 2020 European Fund for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure, is studying purchasing stakes in Polish and Swedish onshore wind farms, solar-photovoltaic plants in France and southern Europe, and so- called concentrated-solar power plants in Spain, Merigo said.
Its first investment was in December with the purchase of about 9 percent in Thornton Bank, a wind farm off the Belgian coast, from EDF Energies Nouvelles SA, Merigo said. “Offshore wind is certainly going to be a part of our portfolio,” he said, declining to give the amount invested in the farm.
The six financial institutions each committed 100 million euros to the Luxembourg-based fund, with three further investors providing 110 million euros, according to its website.
Source: Interview with Bloomberg New Energy Finance