VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities (GSEO) has announced its intention to launch an IPO on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). It is targeting £400m, which would be deployed towards a portfolio of global sustainable energy infrastructure assets, predominantly in countries that are members of the EU, OECD, OECD key partner countries or OECD accession countries. Once the net proceeds of its issue are fully invested, the company says it will target a total net annual return of 10%.
Publication of GSEO’s prospectus has been pencilled in for early January 2021 and the placing and offer for subscription will also open in early January.
Victory Hill Capital Advisors is the investment advisor
The investment adviser to the company will be Victory Hill Capital Advisors. In the announcement, it is noted that “Victory Hill is based in London and was founded in May 2020 by an experienced team of energy financiers (the “Team”) that have spun-out of a large established global project finance banking group. The Team has an established track record built over 5 years while working together and participating in over $37.1bn in sustainable energy project transaction values, generating over 24.2 per cent. equity returns. In addition, the Team has participated in more than $200bn in transaction values across 91 conventional and renewable energy-related transactions in over 30 jurisdictions worldwide, throughout their individual careers.”
Bernard Bulkin, chair of GSEO, commented: “The energy transition is a global opportunity to grow and transform the massive infrastructure of energy to a new environmental standard, along with enabling improved access for underserved populations. This fund is well-positioned to find attractive investments that meet and exceed the energy-related UN Sustainable Development Goals. I am pleased to chair a very experienced board that will provide a strong governance framework on behalf of our investors.”
The opportunity – growth of global energy infrastructure and a £1bn pipeline
This morning’s announcement included the following:
- “Global demand for energy sources is one of the key drivers for the growth of infrastructure capital spend over the last century. It is expected to continue to form part of the main contributors to global growth, largely driven by rising incomes in developing economies, where the population is heading towards 9 billion by 2040. Infrastructure investments will offer investors access to a pipeline of constant yield generating opportunities.
- The company offers investors direct exposure to a diversified portfolio which is focused on accelerating the energy transition.
- The investment adviser has identified a significant pipeline of sustainable energy infrastructure investments for potential acquisition by the company and is engaged in negotiations in relation to a number of these investment opportunities sourced from third parties.
- As the company will not be constrained to a single country or a single technology and will consider investment from a “ready-to-build” stage, the scale of the deployment opportunity is significant. The investment adviser has already identified a significant pipeline of assets with a value of approximately £1 billion and the investment adviser either has (i) secured for the company the exclusive right to negotiate with the owner to acquire, (ii) issued non-binding offers to acquire, and/or (iii) is at an advanced stage of negotiation with the respective developers in respect of, assets with a total value of approximately £300m.”
GSEO: VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities targets £400m IPO