Fondo Italiano per l’Efficienza Energetica: first closing at €86m

·      Raised approximately €100m – €86m at first closing – equal to twice the initial target of €50m

·      Few months after inception, the Fund has attracted several large Italian institutional investors

·      The Fund aims at reaching its target of €150m by year end

Rome, 4^th August 2016 – Starting with €86m at first closing, out of approximately €100m worth of commitments already received, Fondo Italiano per l’Efficienza Energetica (“Fund”), the first equity fund dedicated to energy efficiency projects in Italy, is ready to invest after only few months from inception. 

In particular, the Board of Directors of the Fondo Italiano per l’Efficienza Energetica SGR S.p.A. ("FIEE") has accepted commitments to the Fund for a total amount of approximately €100m, of which €86m at first closing, and the remainder at a subsequent closing due to certain concentration limits applicable to some investors.

The Fund is managed by FIEE, headed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors Raffaele Mellone, a former managing director of Merrill Lynch, and by the CEO Andrea Marano, a former manager at Enel Green Power. Other promoters also include Lamse S.p.A. (a holding company owned by Andrea Agnelli and his sister Anna Agnelli), Fulvio Conti (former CEO of Enel) and Maurizio Cereda (former Deputy Director General and board member of Mediobanca). The promoters have committed €5m of their own money to the initiative. 

“When we began raising capital earlier in the year, we targeted €50m of commitments to be reached by summer” stated Mr. Mellone. “However, over the last few months we have come across a number of very attractive investment opportunities which require prompt action. This led us to accelerate the fundraising process to make sure the Fund would be ready to invest in these projects. So far we have raised approximately €100m, and we are very pleased with such a result.”

“The response we received by several large Italian institutional investors, some of which will likely join the Fund in the second half of the year, has been very positive. We are confident that we will achieve our final target of €150m of commitments by year end” Mr. Marano said. “On the investment side, we have added some attractive opportunities to the existing pipeline, which we will pursue over the next months. Our focus has been on well-proven technologies, such as LED lighting systems, cogeneration plants, as well as high-efficiency production systems in manufacturing facilities.”

The promoters are also very pleased with the diversity of investors the Fund has managed to attract. Seventy-five percent of the capital was raised from primary institutional investors – such as the European Investment Bank, which participates in the initiative with a commitment equal to €25m – with the remaining 25% represented by some large family offices.

“The Fund is an opportunity for financial Investors to access the fast growing sector of energy efficiency by funding projects with stable cash flows and high level of returns. The Fund represents alternative finance applicable to innovative technologies in the real economy thus contributing to the country's development”, Mr. Conti concluded. 

The energy efficiency sector, according to publicly available sources, has an estimated size of over €60bn worth of investments to be made over the next 5 years. Investing in energy efficiency is a great opportunity for the country, in terms of energy savings for the final consumer, effective use of infrastructures, increased competitiveness in the production process, as well as a positive impact on GDP. 

The Fund’s term is 12 years, during which it aimes at returning capital and profits to investors through periodic distributions. As a result, the Fund’s duration would be reduced to approximately 6-7 years. The Fund targets returns equal to 10-12%, which are generated by the energy savings obtained through the use of high-efficiency technologies.