Sunday, Jan 23, 2011
(This item was originally published Thursday.)
ABU DHABI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Abu Dhabi's Masdar and Deutsche Bank have raised an additional $25 million from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for a clean technology fund launched in 2009, closing it at $290 million with a target to invest 30% of it in Asia.
The DB Masdar Clean Tech Fund, which has already invested $50 million in a Chinese wind developer with Macquarie Bank, will be focusing on finding more deals in Asia, Alex O'Cinneide, Masdar Capital's managing director told Zawya Dow Jones in an interview. Initial target size for the fund was between $400 million and $500 million.
"We're actively looking at deals in Taiwan and Japan," O'Cinneide said on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit. "We're still a strong supporter of American innovation and we'll always look at the U.S. and Europe, but we will be doing a lot more in Asia," he added. The fund will also target deals in Singapore and South Korea, O'Cinneide said.
The fund has a target to invest 30% of its capital in each of Asia and the United States, and 40% in Europe. It invested last December $25 million, alongside an additional $25 million from Macquarie, in UPC Renewables China, a company with 150 megawatt of wind projects in construction.
"We're a strong believer in the Chinese wind market," which benefits from strong government support and good financing, O'Cinneide said.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
The fund will look also look at deals in solar, waste, and storage, mostly as late-stage investors. Abu Dhabi created Masdar in 2006 to drive the oil-rich emirate's ambition to become a renewable energy hub. The government-owned company is building a research, residential, and commercial complex on the outskirts of the city that is planned to be carbon-neutral and powered entirely by renewable energy.
Masdar and DB last January announced a first close of $265 million for their fund, Madar's second clean-tech venture capital fund. Masdar chief executive Sultan Al Jaber said last October the aim was to raise it to $400 million by the end of 2010. O'Cinneide said Thursday the fund was closed at $290 million after bringing Mitsubishi Heavy in, joining an initial investor group that included Siemens AG and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Masdar Capital, which manages Masdar's clean-tech venture capital funds, will also look to launch a third fund, with 2010 having been "a very good year" in terms of returns from an earlier $250 million fund run with Credit Suisse and Consensus Business Group.
That fully-deployed fund was about 70% invested in the U.S. and 30% invested in Europe.
Called the Masdar Clean Tech Fund, or MCTF, it realized two "very profitable" exits in 2010, one through an initial public offering of HaloSource and one through the sale of SiC Processing. The fund still owns small stakes in both companies.
MCTF expects to have an exit this quarter for one of the other companies it has invested in, but O'Cinneide said the IPO market still needed some time to recover, leaving large institutions as better options for exit strategies. "We don't believe the IPO market is going to come back in the first half of this year," he said.
While Masdar Capital plans to launch new funds, timing for and structure of a third fund depends on market conditions.
-By Nour Malas, Dow Jones Newswires, +97150 2890223; nour.malas@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
23-01-11 0347GMT
