The government has confirmed the sale of the Green Investment Bank to Macquarie.
The Australian financial services business, which paid £2.3bn (£1.7bn to buy the bank, with a further £600m to fund existing projects), promised to invest at least £3bn in the green economy over the next three years.
The bank has invested £3.4bn since it was established in 2012 to fund green infrastructure projects.
‘This deal gives us the best of both worlds,’ said climate change minister Nick Hurd. ‘We have secured fair value for the UK taxpayer. GIB has a well-funded new owner that is committed to the bank’s green mission, with a track record of success in green investment and an ambition to grow the business.’
Macquarie pledged to maintain the bank’s green purpose and objectives. Under the deal, the organisation’s aims will be safeguarded by five independent trustees who will hold special shares. They include James Curran, former chief executive at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Peter Young, environmentalist and former chair of the Aldersgate Group and Trevor Hutchings, director of advocacy at WWF.
A spokesperson for the trustee group, known as the Green Purposes Company, said it looked forward to working constructively with Macquarie to ensure that the bank continues to play a leading role in supporting green investment. ‘We expect GIB to continue to act both in compliance with, and in the spirit of, its green objectives,’ he said.
Lord Smith of Kelvin, independent chair of the bank, said: ‘GIB in private ownership can, and should, continue to play an important leadership role in supporting the global low-carbon transition and the UK government’s ambitious plans for a strengthened industrial strategy and emissions reduction.’
Macquarie, which claims to be the world’s largest infrastructure investor, said the GIB’s Edinburgh office would be home to a new revenue-generating project delivery business. It will provide services to the green energy portfolios of the GIB and the company in the UK.