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Taking on a target investment total of $250 million for the next five years, EPURON Pte. Ltd. Singapore, a regional subsidiary of the Conergy Group in Asia-Pacific, and GE Energy Financial Services have teamed up to form The Asia Pacific’s first renewable energy-based private investment fund, entitled The Renewable Energy Trust Asia (“RETA”). Focussing on solar, wind, small hydroelectric, biogas and biomass power generation throughout the markets of India, the ASEAN countries and South Korea, the trust will aim to have amassed close to 200MW in the next five years.
GE Energy Financial Services will hold an 80% stake in the new RETA venture, while EPURON will hold the remaining 20% and act as its Trustee-Manager. EPURON will take on responsibility for such aspects of the trust’s management as project development, debt financing, acquisition of hardware and supervision of the construction of renewable energy projects. EPURON and other third parties will acquire projects for RETA, which will then operate the projects. Expenses incurred as well as all investment decisions will be shared by GE and EPURON, while the trust fund is expected to make its first investment within a year. Once a sufficient amount of investments have been made by RETA, the company may be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited stock exchange.
“This sophisticated investment vehicle offers great opportunities to develop in future even more commercial-scale renewable power projects in Asia-Pacific,” said Joachim Müller, EPURON’s Managing Director. “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 which demands projects must meet to fit in the trust. Thus we can use our resources in a much more specific and efficient way.”
