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December 15, 2008
Hamburg,
Germany: Conergy and GE Launch Asia-Pacific Green Trust
EPURON
Pte. Ltd. Singapore, a regional subsidiary of the Conergy Group
in Asia-Pacific, and GE unit GE Energy Financial Services have
launched Asia-Pacific's first renewable energy private trust to
spur their growth and investments in wind, solar, small hydroelectric,
biogas and biomass power generation throughout the region. The
Renewable Energy Trust Asia (“RETA”) is an investment vehicle
focused on the US$7 billion annual renewable energy markets of
India, the ASEAN countries and South Korea.
It
plans to build a portfolio of some 200 megawatts through potential
investments totalling US$250 million (S$380 million) within the
next five years.
With
an 80 percent stake, GE Energy Financial Services will serve as
RETA’s anchor investor. In addition to maintaining its core expertise
in greenfield development, EPURON will hold a 20 percent stake
in RETA and act as its Trustee-Manager. EPURON will be responsible
for sourcing third party projects as well as performing its own
project development, debt financing and hardware acquisition of
renewable energy projects. After projects have been completed,
EPURON will manage them. RETA will acquire and operate projects
from both EPURON and third parties and expects to make its first
investment within a year.
Both
parties will share the Trust expenses and decide on each proposed
investment when presented. Financial details were not disclosed.
“This
sophisticated investment vehicle offers great opportunities to
develop in future even more commercial-scale renewable power projects
in Asia-Pacific. These projects secure predictable cash flow and
long-term capital growth and are therefore a particularly interesting
asset class for investors, despite the volatile financial markets.
Our close partnership with GE ensures that our project developers
in Asia-Pacific know right from the start what criteria projects
must meet to fit the trust. Thus we can use our resources in a
much more specific and efficient way,” said Joachim Mueller, Managing
Director EPURON.
Conergy
CEO Dieter Ammer added: “We are building long-term relationships
between highly specialised partners with a strong track record
in their respective business areas. This is one of the answers
to the challenges that we have to manage in times of financial
turbulence. With the Renewable Energy Trust Asia, we will combine
EPURON’s renewable energy project development and financial expertise
with GE Energy Financial Services’ world-class origination and
underwriting capabilities, as well as its access to technology.”
GE
Energy Financial Services, which has already invested more than
US$4 billion in renewable energy, sees the trust with EPURON as
a new platform for its growth.
“This
innovative trust is an efficient way for us to partner with an
experienced developer and aggregate a diversified portfolio of
smaller renewable energy investments in Asia,” said James Berner,
the Singapore-based head of Asia at GE Energy Financial Services.
“The renewable energy trust is also a way for us to contribute
to GE’s ecomagination program, its initiative of helping its customers
meet their environmental challenges while expanding its own portfolio
of cleaner energy products.”
Once
a sufficient investment volume has been achieved, RETA may be
listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”)
stock exchange, becoming the first pure-play renewable energy
business trust to be listed in Asia-Pacific.
This
first “green” trust in Asia-Pacific and the collaboration with
GE serve as a potential model for realising commercial-scale renewable
energy projects with the Conergy Group in other regions.
Further details about: Conergy
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