Earth Capital Partners ‘on course’ for $5bn fund-raise

London, 26 November: The Stanley Fink-backed Earth Capital Partners (ECP) is still on course to raise $5 billion into environmentally-focused funds, as it prepares to name a cornerstone investor in a new renewable energy fund.

“There’s probably more interest in sustainable investment than when we launched,” partner Ben Cotton told Environmental Finance, “but we’re finding it takes longer to get things done.”

ECP grabbed the headlines last year with a forecast that it planned to raise $5 billion over five years into a series of funds which will aim to deliver competitive returns while addressing sustainable development challenges.

However, since the launch, the company has been publicly silent.

“We underestimated the amount of interest in what we’re doing,” Cotton said. “We’ve spent an awful lot of time talking to investors, which has reinforced our view that our target is realistic.”

On Monday, ECP announced plans to raise up to €750 million ($1.125 billion) into a fund to invest in solar, biogas and biomass projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in cooperation with E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R), an arm of the German utilities giant.

Cotton said that ECP has signed up a pension fund as cornerstone investor, but declined to name the investor, nor the sum raised, ahead of an official announcement expected next week. However, he did say that the sum is large enough “to get things started”.

EC&R will act as the fund’s “primary industrial services provider”, helping with project development and operation and maintenance of assets, although the fund will be able to tap other development companies. The fund will be managed by Christoph Waltenspul, who joined ECP from US energy company AES earlier this year.

Fink, the former head of listed hedge fund giant Man Financial, is non-executive chairman of ECP.