Schroders has confirmed the £358m acquisition of a 75 per cent stake in Greencoat Capital, one of Europe’s largest renewable infrastructure managers. The move marks the latest example of dealmaking in the asset management industry and will help Schroders take advantage of two of the sector’s biggest trends: greater demand for renewable energy assets and the expansion of the private capital sector. Greencoat was set up in 2009 by its four founder-owners Laurence Fumagalli, Bertrand Gautier, Stephen Lilley and Richard Nourse. It has grown quickly since then, with assets under management rising at about 50 per cent a year for the past four years to stand at £6.7bn. It has investments in areas such as wind, solar and bioenergy at 200 sites in the UK, Europe and the US.
Schroders, which has more than £700bn in assets under management, has been building out its private asset’s platform and its position in sustainability. In July, alongside early-stage venture capital firm Oxford Sciences Innovation, it bought a minority stake in Natural Capital Research, a research organization that helps its clients develop ESG, biodiversity and net zero carbon strategies. The private capital industry reached $7.4tn at the end of 2020, and is expected to hit $13tn by 2025, as investors pour money into these strategies in the search for returns in a low-interest-rate environment.