Wermuth to launch Green Gateway Fund 2
DUBAI, January 11, 2016
Wermuth Asset Management (WAM), a firm specialising in impact investments, is set to launch another private equity fund, with a focus on European growth companies within the area of resource efficiency and renewable energy.
Jochen Wemuth, chief investment officer, who will be speaking at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) on January 20 in Abu Dhabi, said: “In the Middle East the Green Gateway Fund 2 is directed towards institutional, HNWI and Family Offices who wish their investments to be not only climate friendly but also, at the same time, to generate attractive returns.”
The fund’s target size is €250 million ($273 million), within individual investments of between €5 and €30 million into portfolio companies which demonstrate high growth potential and which, on the basis of proven business models, stand to make significant contributions to energy and resource efficiency.
These might include companies from the fields of renewable energy, electromobility, electric power storage and smart grid technology.
The average holding period should be in the range of four to five years. The portfolio companies will, moreover, be actively supported by Wermuth Asset Management, with its many years of international experience, as they expand into the world’s growth markets, such as the Middle East.
The fund’s management team will consist of senior fund partners Jochen Wermuth, Casper Heijsteeg and Michael Ludwig, who already manage Green Gateway Fund 1.
“The environment for growth investments in Europe continues to be extremely favourable. In recent years, there has been a stronger investment emphasis on the buyout sector,” said Wermuth.
“Valuations in the growth sector thus remain particularly attractive, in part also because Basel III has caused banks to reduce lending to these growth companies,” he said.
With the launch of Green Gateway Fund 2, WAM seeks to build on the success of Green Gateway Fund 1, which likewise focuses on financing European growth companies and supporting them through as they reach commercial maturity.
The first fund is currently invested in four portfolio companies which have, on average, been growing at a rate of 30 per cent annually since investment entry and, in just three years, quadrupled their income.
After just three years, the estimated value of the fund’s portfolio is now 2.6 times invested capital, based on third-party offers for the portfolio companies. - TradeArabia News Service
