Glennmont near halfway for second fund

London-based Glennmont Partners, which spun out of French bank BNP Paribas early this year, has revealed that it has raised €200 million at the first close of its second fund from new and existing investors.

The fund, which has a ten-year lifespan, is targeting €450 million. The Glennmont team’s first fund was raised within BNP Paribas – when the firm was known as BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners – and closed on €437 million in December 2010. When the spinout occurred, no team members left.

Glennmont’s focus is on alternative power generation projects in areas such as wind, biomass, solar and small-scale hydro. Since the team was assembled in 2007, it has made more than €1 billion of investments in these areas.

Among the firm’s deals from its first fund, in December 2011 it acquired the €200 million Sleaford straw-fired renewable energy plant from Welsh firm ECO2 in what was its first biomass acquisition and the first project finance-backed biomass deal in the UK for five years.

“We were clear that our specialist focus on clean energy infrastructure investments would appeal to institutional investors’ need for yield and long term capital appreciation,” said Glennmont managing partner and chief executive Joost Bergsma in a statement. “The strong response we have received to our second fund at this early stage reinforces those views.”

Glennmont is owned and managed by four partners. As well as Bergsma, they comprise Francesco Cacciabue (chief financial officer), Peter Dickson (technical director) and Scott Lawrence.