Related News:
Avatar Backer Ingenious Expands in ‘Untapped’ U.K. Clean Energy
Ingenious Media Holdings Plc, an investor whose sci-fi movie “Avatar” showed humans plundering a distant moon, is putting funds into resource protection at home as it studies a 40 million-pound ($63 million) energy fund.
Ingenious may open a “generic” clean-energy fund, James Axtell, an investment director at the London-based company, said in an interview. It also plans to start a second energy- efficiency fund in 2013, after closing its first this March.
Both new funds would qualify under the Enterprise Investment Schemes, a U.K. government-backed system that offers tax breaks to investors in “higher-risk” companies. Ingenious follows Guy Hands’s Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., previous owner of record label EMI Group Ltd. and now a backer of wind and solar power, in adding clean energy to media holdings.
Ingenious’s first energy-efficiency fund is targeting about 10 million pounds and a second fund would seek as much as 20 million pounds, Axtell said. Initial proceeds will finance the installation of energy-saving equipment at U.K. properties such as shopping malls, schools, prisons and parking lots, he said.
The U.K. is promoting efficiency measures as it seeks to curb dependence on fossil fuels and reduce polluting emissions. Its Green Deal program allows households to pay for home improvements through savings on energy bills, while the planned Green Investment Bank will also fund energy savings in business.
‘Untapped Market’
“One of the key attractions of this area is that it is a relatively untapped market in the U.K.,” Axtell said in London. “It isn’t correlated with the equity markets, and for some of our potential investors at the moment that is quite important.”
Ingenious is expanding in clean energy after making its name backing such films as “Avatar” in 2009 and “X-Men: First Class” in 2011. It has added sports, festivals and leisure investments such as fine wines, as well as clean energy.
Britain is working toward a European Union goal of getting 15 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2020. It’s also aiming to cut emissions 34 percent from 1990 levels by that time, through renewables projects and efficiency improvements.
Returns on investment in Ingenious’s energy-efficiency funds will be generated by the energy savings made, Axtell said. The investor will take as much as a 90 percent share of the savings over the contract period, which is usually about seven years, and expects annual returns of about 19.6 percent over 3 1/2 years, he said.
Next year, the cap on funds that can be raised by companies under the Enterprise Investment Scheme will increase to 10 million pounds from 2 million pounds, Axtell said. That may open up other industries for Ingenious to invest in through a generic clean-energy fund, he said, citing biomass as a potential candidate. The company already has a U.K. solar fund.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Louise Downing in London at Ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg in London at landberg@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page