Climate Endowment Group and Akcome signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly set up a climate-focused asset manager in Singapore. A first step is to raise a S$1billion “Climate Endowment Asia-Pacific Renewable Energy Fund”, to be listed as a Business Trust on the Singapore stock exchange
On May 12, 2020, Akcome Group and the Climate Endowment Group formally signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The two parties agreed to jointly establish a new climate focused asset manager in Singapore with the aim to create a S$1bn (one billion Singapore dollar) “Climate Endowment Asia-Pacific Renewable Energy Fund” to invest in high-quality renewable energy assets such as solar power plants.
The fund will be dedicated to addressing environmental issues caused by global warming, to accelerate the development and roll-out of renewable energy, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and provide comprehensive solutions for renewable energy.
The fund will target investments in solar, wind, hydropower, energy storage and other related renewable energy projects that reduce carbon emissions. The target geographic area includes China and Southeast Asia. Post-fund launch, the plan is to list the fund as a Business Trust on the Singapore Stock Exchange and thereafter grow the assets under management over the next five years to about S$5bn, with an installed capacity of 8 GWp via acquisitions of renewable energy projects. The seed assets of the fund are likely to be several operating solar energy projects in China.
The fund’s target investors are large institutions from Western Europe and Asia who face declining returns from bond investments in today’s zero interest rate environment. The fund aims to provide steady long term returns to such investors by generating stable, fixed-income like long term returns from renewable energy projects. These investments have a hard asset character with long operational lifespans to match the long-dated liabilities of the investors.
The fund seeks to build a high-quality portfolio of renewable energy assets, listed in Singapore as a business trust to let investors enjoy regular dividends.
About Climate Endowment Group
Climate Endowment Group is a climate impact investment manager with the mission to create large scale positive impact in the fight against climate change through “endowment style” investments as pursued by the Yale Endowment, which has seen average returns of some 12% per annum over the past 30 years versus 3-4% for EU Pension or Insurance Funds. The aim is to enable institutional investors to allocate more capital to solid, long-term profitable climate solutions by investing them across all asset classes with endowment-type returns and a risk-profile suitable for conservative investors. A better risk-return profile can be achieved compared to traditional asset allocation due to higher diversification and the “illiquidity premium” gained though a longer investment horizon inherent in the “endowment model. Risks are further reduced by excluding industries expected to have no future after the “4th or “green” industrial revolution – such as fossil fuel companies and related industries.
It was founded in 2019 by a team of experienced investment professionals and climate experts with the ambition to take the expertise from asset management and combine it climate abatement expertise to achieve a triple bottom line for profit, people and planet. The multidisciplinary CE team has extensive experience in the area of asset evaluation and management, financial structuring, risk assessment and climate impact evaluation.
The CE is guided in its approach by the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) – which identified an annual climate finance gap of some $1 trillion, Project Drawdown (PD) – which analyzed and the shared the vast set of readily available profitable solutions not only to reduce CO2 emissions to slow down climate change, but eventually to reverse climate change by “drawing down” CO2 from the atmosphere again – and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Studies (PIK)’s concept of “addressing climate change within planetary boundaries”.
The CE focuses its initial funds to be launched on illiquid investments in sustainable and commercially viable technologies with well-proven business models, which cause a strong reduction in global CO2 emissions. It sees its future in investing in the champions of the 4th or “Green Industrial Revolution”, driven by global market forces at the intersection of the energy-, transport-, finance-, agricultural-, AI/ IT-, education and health, economic transition.
About Akcome Group
Akcome Group was established in 2006 and is headquartered in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, a model city of the United Nations. It is one of China’s leading new energy integrated service groups. Akcome Technology (002610) was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2011. In 2018, Akcome ranked No. 476 in the list of China’s Top 500 Private Enterprises, and No. 57 in the Global New Energy Top 500 list.
After the establishment of the initial Akcome solar frame business, it successfully developed Europe, the United States, Japan and other markets, and became the leading enterprise in the global photovoltaic accessories industry. Based on this, Akcome Group has gradually expanded its core photovoltaic manufacturing businesses such as photovoltaic material processing, photovoltaic brackets, photovoltaic cell modules, and photovoltaic new materials, and successfully landed on the A-share market in 2011.
In 2011, marked by the successful listing of “Akcome Technology”, Akcome Group made a foray into the photovoltaic downstream photovoltaic power generation business and quickly achieved remarkable results in the development and holding of about 1.4GW of photovoltaic power plants, laying a leading position in the development, operation and maintenance of photovoltaic power plants.
In 2016, Akcome took the initiative to start a strategic transformation, focusing on industry, light assets, and high circulation, to create a new energy manufacturing business centered on “efficient manufacturing” and a new energy service business centered on “smart platformization”.