Impax Targets Wind With $450 Million Renewables Fund, Chief Says
Impax Asset Management Ltd., a London-based clean-energy investor, closed a 330 million-euro ($450 million) private equity fund that will focus on European wind investments, its managing director said.
The funds raised were 10 percent more than targeted and will be fully invested in renewable energy projects by 2015, Peter Rossbach said today in an interview.
“Our key interests are in French, German and Polish wind,” the fund manager said by phone. “We’re focused on these countries because of the stage of market development and the availability of financing. In Germany and France, you get pretty fair financing and in France and Poland, we expect material construction over 2012-13.”
The wholly owned unit of Impax Asset Management Group Plc (IPX) has closed its second private equity fund targeting renewable energy. The first closed in 2006. The fund, which invests in both projects and companies, expects to develop as much as 100 megawatts in French wind capacity over the next 18 months.
Participants in the Impax New Energy Investors II fund reflect the interest of institutional investors in the long-term cash flows produced by renewable energy projects. More than half were U.K. pension funds and others included Finnish, German, Japanese and American investors, Rossbach said.
The fund, which targets as many as 14 companies in six to eight countries. will look into solar energy next year, according to the managing director.
“While we are not buying solar today, we can see the opportunity to buy solar in 2012 because the panel prices are now going below a euro a watt,” he said. “We target investing in solar next year and are also interested in solar thermal.”
The fund will target equity investments of 10 million and 60 million euros. “We are not finding securing debt financing difficult at the moment,” Rossbach said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Marc Roca in London at and Louise Downing at
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
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