Written by Marks@Tiburon
Friday, 07 August 2009 00:00
The speed at which China is addressing its voracious appetite for energy and dire environmental issues is not being given enough attention.
While the country has suffered a slow down in economic growth due to the global credit crisis the government has prioritised the development of wind energy as an area for major investment. At the end of 2008 China’s installed wind capacity was 12,200MW. Already, during the first half of 2009, China’s capacity is reported to have increased by over 10,000MW and by the end of 2009 will account for around one third of the world’s installed wind generating capacity and rank second behind the United States, surpassing Germany and Spain. We believe that this could increase by 400% to over 117,000MW by 2013. With China accounting for 33% of global coal consumption and over 70% of electricity generated coming from coal fired generators, there is every incentive to achieve this fourfold increase over the next two years. Some might say it is a necessity.
Every man and his dog buys into the renewable theme. However with targets set for distant dates like 2020 it is often put on the back burner by investors. We believe that the process is accelerating so that the renewable proposition is not just investible, it is timely. It is for this reason that we are launching a new fund, Tiburon Green in Q3.
NEWS - Commodites, Agriculture, Green Investment - NEWS
8/13/2009
8/05/2009
Ventus Funds reach £50m for investment in UK renewable energy projects
13th July 2009
Low carbon investor Climate Change Capital’s Ventus Funds have raised a further £13.85m of capital for investment in the UK renewable energy sector.
The Ventus Funds have now raised over £50m since their launch in 2005.
The Ventus Funds are specialist venture capital trusts focused exclusively on making investments in the small to medium sized UK onshore renewable energy sector and are the largest group of funds of their kind. Since 2005 the Ventus Funds have invested £30m in over 25 companies, contributing to the delivery over 50MW of new generating capacity.
In November of last year, the Ventus Funds, backed a scheme to enable Belfast’s major landfill site to produce electricity.
Low carbon investor Climate Change Capital’s Ventus Funds have raised a further £13.85m of capital for investment in the UK renewable energy sector.
The Ventus Funds have now raised over £50m since their launch in 2005.
The Ventus Funds are specialist venture capital trusts focused exclusively on making investments in the small to medium sized UK onshore renewable energy sector and are the largest group of funds of their kind. Since 2005 the Ventus Funds have invested £30m in over 25 companies, contributing to the delivery over 50MW of new generating capacity.
In November of last year, the Ventus Funds, backed a scheme to enable Belfast’s major landfill site to produce electricity.
Former UBS Exec Founds Cleantech Investment Bank
July 1, 2009 - FINalternatives
Jeffrey McDermottJeffrey McDermott, formerly of UBS, has launched Greentech Capital Advisors, LLC, billed as a pure-play investment bank and advisory firm dedicated to alternative energy and cleantech companies.
McDermott, a former joint global head of UBS investment banking, has assembled a team from Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Barclays to focus on the alternative energy space.
“For [alternative energy and cleantech] companies to thrive, and for America to transition to a cleaner and more energy efficient economy, there is a need for a dedicated team of experienced bankers,” said McDermott. “Alternative energy and cleantech companies need bankers with deep industry knowledge, a wide array of product skills, and relationships with large industrial, power and utility companies who are the ultimate customers, strategic partners and consolidators for these companies.”
Greentech Capital Advisors offers clients services across the project finance, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions markets.
Partners include COO Robert A. Schultz, a former managing director and COO at Morgan Stanley Fund Services; Timothy F. Vincent, head of project finance and a former managing director of infrastructure clients at Goldman Sachs; Michael J. Molnar former lead equity research analyst on the U.S. alternative energy and coal sectors for Goldman Sachs; and Craig J. Wellen, formerly a senior banker at Citi responsible for strategic M&A transactions and capital raisings for numerous North American utilities, infrastructure funds and multinational energy companies.
R. Andrew de Pass, founder and former head of Citi’s Sustainable Development Investments (SDI), joins Greentech Capital Advisors as a senior advisor responsible for developing and leading the firm’s private equity investing business. Olav Junttila, who worked as an investment principal at SDI, has also joined the firm.
Greentech Capital Advisors provides financial advisory services, including buy-side and sell-side M&A, exclusive sale transactions, restructurings, private placements and project finance advisory to companies engaged in alternative energy; energy efficiency, transmission and distribution infrastructure; sustainable materials and products; waste management; recycling and water efficiency.
Jeffrey McDermottJeffrey McDermott, formerly of UBS, has launched Greentech Capital Advisors, LLC, billed as a pure-play investment bank and advisory firm dedicated to alternative energy and cleantech companies.
McDermott, a former joint global head of UBS investment banking, has assembled a team from Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Barclays to focus on the alternative energy space.
“For [alternative energy and cleantech] companies to thrive, and for America to transition to a cleaner and more energy efficient economy, there is a need for a dedicated team of experienced bankers,” said McDermott. “Alternative energy and cleantech companies need bankers with deep industry knowledge, a wide array of product skills, and relationships with large industrial, power and utility companies who are the ultimate customers, strategic partners and consolidators for these companies.”
Greentech Capital Advisors offers clients services across the project finance, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions markets.
Partners include COO Robert A. Schultz, a former managing director and COO at Morgan Stanley Fund Services; Timothy F. Vincent, head of project finance and a former managing director of infrastructure clients at Goldman Sachs; Michael J. Molnar former lead equity research analyst on the U.S. alternative energy and coal sectors for Goldman Sachs; and Craig J. Wellen, formerly a senior banker at Citi responsible for strategic M&A transactions and capital raisings for numerous North American utilities, infrastructure funds and multinational energy companies.
R. Andrew de Pass, founder and former head of Citi’s Sustainable Development Investments (SDI), joins Greentech Capital Advisors as a senior advisor responsible for developing and leading the firm’s private equity investing business. Olav Junttila, who worked as an investment principal at SDI, has also joined the firm.
Greentech Capital Advisors provides financial advisory services, including buy-side and sell-side M&A, exclusive sale transactions, restructurings, private placements and project finance advisory to companies engaged in alternative energy; energy efficiency, transmission and distribution infrastructure; sustainable materials and products; waste management; recycling and water efficiency.
Leuthold Launches Cleantech Mutual Fund
July 29, 2009 _ FINalternatives
Minneapolis, Minn.-based asset management firm Leuthold Weeden Capital Management has recently unveiled a mutual fund that will focus on the rapidly growing clean technology sector.
The new offering, the Leuthold Global Clean Technology Fund, will invest in publicly traded clean technology companies, both in the U.S. and abroad, with the aim of holding stocks for a year or longer.
“Most funds out there are looking at recent technologies. We are looking at proven strategies that have the potential for growth,” says Eric Bjorgen, who co-manages the fund alongside Steve Leuthold, chief investment officer of the firm.
Cleantech industry expert David Kurzman, who recently joined the firm to provide analytical support for the fund, says there is a “perfect storm” of events happening now that makes this area of investing extremely attractive.
“First, you have political will, not only in the U.S. with the Obama administration looking to put north of $150 billion over the next decade into renewables and clean technologies, but you also have political will coming from multiple other countries. Second, there are a number of really attractive and talented managers that are coming into the industry…And third, the companies themselves have commercially viable products that are generating profits,” Kurzman says.
According to Bjorgen, the fund will focus on four clean technology groups: alternative energy, resource conservation, clean water, and clean environment.
The team is being rounded out by analyst Jun Zhu, who has been with the firm for over a year and has a strong background in both fundamental and quantitative analysis.
The Leuthold Global Clean Technology Fund offers both a Retail Share Class (LGCTX) and an Institutional Share Class (LGCIX).
Minneapolis, Minn.-based asset management firm Leuthold Weeden Capital Management has recently unveiled a mutual fund that will focus on the rapidly growing clean technology sector.
The new offering, the Leuthold Global Clean Technology Fund, will invest in publicly traded clean technology companies, both in the U.S. and abroad, with the aim of holding stocks for a year or longer.
“Most funds out there are looking at recent technologies. We are looking at proven strategies that have the potential for growth,” says Eric Bjorgen, who co-manages the fund alongside Steve Leuthold, chief investment officer of the firm.
Cleantech industry expert David Kurzman, who recently joined the firm to provide analytical support for the fund, says there is a “perfect storm” of events happening now that makes this area of investing extremely attractive.
“First, you have political will, not only in the U.S. with the Obama administration looking to put north of $150 billion over the next decade into renewables and clean technologies, but you also have political will coming from multiple other countries. Second, there are a number of really attractive and talented managers that are coming into the industry…And third, the companies themselves have commercially viable products that are generating profits,” Kurzman says.
According to Bjorgen, the fund will focus on four clean technology groups: alternative energy, resource conservation, clean water, and clean environment.
The team is being rounded out by analyst Jun Zhu, who has been with the firm for over a year and has a strong background in both fundamental and quantitative analysis.
The Leuthold Global Clean Technology Fund offers both a Retail Share Class (LGCTX) and an Institutional Share Class (LGCIX).
8/04/2009
Riding a green tide: Matthew Goldstein
Mon Aug 3, 2009 4:14pm EDT
-- Matthew Goldstein is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own --
By Matthew Goldstein
NEW YORK (Reuters) - PetroAlgae (PALG.OB: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is one of those many clean-tech companies that seem to burn through cash faster than a Hummer goes through a gallon of gas. Yet something curious is going on with shares of this Melbourne, Florida-based company, which is hoping to make money from turning algae into oil.
Over the past month, the stock price of PetroAlgae has rocketed from $8 to as high as $32.75 on ultra-thin trading of the shares (as of late Monday it had fallen back to around $10).
PetroAlgae boasts a rather healthy $1 billion market value -- after being as high as $3.4 billion earlier Monday -- even though it has no revenues, a $34 million accumulated deficit and its auditor isn't sure the company can continue as a going concern.
There may be a plausible explanation for PetroAlgae's surprising surge. Last month, Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announced that it would spend $600 million to study the feasibility of algae-based fuels. There's no indication PetroAlgae will get any of those research dollars, but that's never stopped investors from wishing.
But the real winners here are David Grin and Eugene Grin, hedge fund managers who are longtime investors in cash-starved, small-cap companies. A group of funds managed by the brothers, including the $700 million Valens Capital Management series of hedge funds, effectively own a 96 percent equity stake in PetroAlgae.
The brothers Grin sank their teeth deep into PetroAlgae last December. In a series of transactions, a company controlled by Valens and the other funds paid $350,000 for 100 million shares of PetroAlgae, regulatory filings show. Then the Valens funds pumped an additional $10 million into PetroAlgae -- a cash infusion that accounted for nearly all the assets on the biotech company's balance sheet at the end of 2008.
Valens' investment in PetroAlgae represents nearly a quarter of the hedge funds' equity, say investors familiar with the fund. So the Valens funds, which were up a modest 4 percent in the first half of the year, should get a big bounce in July from the run-up in PetroAlgae shares.
Still, it's hard to see how Valens investors will ever truly profit from an Exxon-induced green wave of enthusiasm for algae-based fuels.
With the Grins' funds controlling all but a small sliver of PetroAlgae shares, the stock seldom trades. Any attempt by Valens and the other related hedge funds to try to take some profits by selling shares would quickly take the air out of this bubble.
And with PetroAlgae burning through $5.8 million in cash in the first quarter, about half the $10 million it received from Valens is gone. At the end of the first quarter, PetroAlgae reported having $5.6 million in assets. It had $11.6 million at the end of 2008.
So it's not clear what the Grins' longtime game plan is for this tiny cash-hungry company. An attorney for the hedge funds had little to say except to note that the Grins provide "shareholders and auditors with complete transparency and updates on the PetroAlgae investment."
Unless PetroAlgae can come to market soon with a viable technology for turning algae into fuel, it appears as if Valens investors may find themselves stranded on the rocks.
(Editing by Martin Langfield)
-- Matthew Goldstein is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own --
By Matthew Goldstein
NEW YORK (Reuters) - PetroAlgae (PALG.OB: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is one of those many clean-tech companies that seem to burn through cash faster than a Hummer goes through a gallon of gas. Yet something curious is going on with shares of this Melbourne, Florida-based company, which is hoping to make money from turning algae into oil.
Over the past month, the stock price of PetroAlgae has rocketed from $8 to as high as $32.75 on ultra-thin trading of the shares (as of late Monday it had fallen back to around $10).
PetroAlgae boasts a rather healthy $1 billion market value -- after being as high as $3.4 billion earlier Monday -- even though it has no revenues, a $34 million accumulated deficit and its auditor isn't sure the company can continue as a going concern.
There may be a plausible explanation for PetroAlgae's surprising surge. Last month, Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announced that it would spend $600 million to study the feasibility of algae-based fuels. There's no indication PetroAlgae will get any of those research dollars, but that's never stopped investors from wishing.
But the real winners here are David Grin and Eugene Grin, hedge fund managers who are longtime investors in cash-starved, small-cap companies. A group of funds managed by the brothers, including the $700 million Valens Capital Management series of hedge funds, effectively own a 96 percent equity stake in PetroAlgae.
The brothers Grin sank their teeth deep into PetroAlgae last December. In a series of transactions, a company controlled by Valens and the other funds paid $350,000 for 100 million shares of PetroAlgae, regulatory filings show. Then the Valens funds pumped an additional $10 million into PetroAlgae -- a cash infusion that accounted for nearly all the assets on the biotech company's balance sheet at the end of 2008.
Valens' investment in PetroAlgae represents nearly a quarter of the hedge funds' equity, say investors familiar with the fund. So the Valens funds, which were up a modest 4 percent in the first half of the year, should get a big bounce in July from the run-up in PetroAlgae shares.
Still, it's hard to see how Valens investors will ever truly profit from an Exxon-induced green wave of enthusiasm for algae-based fuels.
With the Grins' funds controlling all but a small sliver of PetroAlgae shares, the stock seldom trades. Any attempt by Valens and the other related hedge funds to try to take some profits by selling shares would quickly take the air out of this bubble.
And with PetroAlgae burning through $5.8 million in cash in the first quarter, about half the $10 million it received from Valens is gone. At the end of the first quarter, PetroAlgae reported having $5.6 million in assets. It had $11.6 million at the end of 2008.
So it's not clear what the Grins' longtime game plan is for this tiny cash-hungry company. An attorney for the hedge funds had little to say except to note that the Grins provide "shareholders and auditors with complete transparency and updates on the PetroAlgae investment."
Unless PetroAlgae can come to market soon with a viable technology for turning algae into fuel, it appears as if Valens investors may find themselves stranded on the rocks.
(Editing by Martin Langfield)
Commodity Hedge Funds Pick Up $1B
August 3, 2009 FinAlternatives
Commodity hedge funds did far better than most of their peers last year, and investors have rewarded them.
Even though commodities hedge funds lost 2.3% in the first half, hedge funds investing in the strategy took in nearly $1 billion in the second quarter, Hedge Fund Research reports. Commodities hedge funds now manage $11 billion, up 8.9% from the end of the first quarter, and nearly as much as the $11.1 billion they managed at the beginning of the year.
HFR said there were about 150 commodity hedge funds last month.
Commodity hedge funds did far better than most of their peers last year, and investors have rewarded them.
Even though commodities hedge funds lost 2.3% in the first half, hedge funds investing in the strategy took in nearly $1 billion in the second quarter, Hedge Fund Research reports. Commodities hedge funds now manage $11 billion, up 8.9% from the end of the first quarter, and nearly as much as the $11.1 billion they managed at the beginning of the year.
HFR said there were about 150 commodity hedge funds last month.
8/03/2009
Roubini Says Commodity Prices May Rise in 2010
By Rebecca Keenan and Jason Scott
Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Commodity prices may extend their rally in 2010 as the global recession abates, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the financial crisis.
“As the global economy goes toward growth as opposed to a recession, you are going to see further increases in commodity prices especially next year,” Roubini said today at the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. “There is now potentially light at the end of the tunnel.”
Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics and a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, joins former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in seeing signs of recovery. Commodity prices gained the most in more than four months on July 30 as investors speculated that the worst of the global recession has passed and consumption of crops, metals and fuel will rebound.
“The things he was saying provide good indicators for our business,” Martin McDermott, a manager for metals project development at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s biggest engineering and construction company, said at the conference. “The commodities that we’re involved with, being copper, nickel, gold, iron ore, all seem to have positive signs and we hope to take advantage of that.”
Greenspan said yesterday the most severe recession in the U.S. in at least five decades may be ending and growth may resume at a rate faster than most economists foresee. Oil has jumped 56 percent in 2009 and copper has surged 86 percent.
China Growth Target
Roubini predicted on July 23 that the global economy will begin recovering near the end of 2009, before possibly dropping back into a recession by late 2010 or 2011 because of rising government debt, higher oil prices and a lack of job growth.
Economic growth in China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, accelerated in the second quarter, gaining 7.9 percent from a year earlier. China, the biggest contributor to global growth, overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest stock market by value on July 16 after the nation’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package spurred record lending and boosted prices of shares and commodities.
China will meet its target of 8 percent growth in gross domestic product this year, Roubini said. Manufacturing in China climbed for a fifth month in July as stimulus spending and subsidies for consumer purchases countered a collapse in exports, and helped companies from chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. to automaker General Motors Corp. as well as mining companies such as BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group.
China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.3 in July from 53.2 in June. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion. The manufacturing index has climbed from a record low of 38.8 in November.
Aussie Dollar, Aluminum
A rise in commodity prices may help the Australian dollar, Roubini said today, adding he is “bullish” on the currency. Countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada have so- called commodity currencies because raw materials generate more than 50 percent of their export revenues.
The Australian dollar today rose to the highest since September before retail sales and house price data tomorrow that may add to evidence the nation’s economy will rebound faster than the central bank forecast six months ago.
The price of aluminum, used in beverage cans and airplane parts, has declined by a third in the past year as the global recession crimped demand. A recovery in demand may be offset by the “huge amount of excess capacity,” which could be a risk to the price, Roubini said.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities has risen 12 percent this year. It jumped 3.9 percent on July 30 to 253.14, the biggest gain since March 19.
Slow Recovery
“That recovery will continue slowly, slowly over time,” Roubini said today. The global economy may contract 2 percent this year and swing to growth of 2.3 percent next year, he said.
Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron ore producer, said demand for metals is starting to recover and it will begin boosting output. Vale Chief Financial Officer Fabio Barbosa said on July 30 that “the worst is over”.
The price of oil may rise more than other commodities because of an expected rebound in demand, Roubini said separately in an interview with Bloomberg News. It may average between $70 and $75 a barrel next year, he said.
Oil Prices
Crude oil traded above $70 a barrel today for the first time in a month on speculation fuel demand will increase, amid signs the global economy is recovering from recession.
The U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, is likely to grow about 1 percent in the next two years, less than the 3 percent “trend,” Roubini said last month. President Barack Obama said on July 30 the U.S. may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.
In July 2006 Roubini predicted the financial crisis. In February of last year he forecast a “catastrophic” meltdown that central bankers would fail to prevent, leading to the bankruptcy of large banks with mortgage holdings and a “sharp drop” in equities. Since then, Bear Stearns Cos. was forced into a sale and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt, prompting banks to hoard cash and depriving businesses and households of access to capital.
Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Commodity prices may extend their rally in 2010 as the global recession abates, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the financial crisis.
“As the global economy goes toward growth as opposed to a recession, you are going to see further increases in commodity prices especially next year,” Roubini said today at the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. “There is now potentially light at the end of the tunnel.”
Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics and a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, joins former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in seeing signs of recovery. Commodity prices gained the most in more than four months on July 30 as investors speculated that the worst of the global recession has passed and consumption of crops, metals and fuel will rebound.
“The things he was saying provide good indicators for our business,” Martin McDermott, a manager for metals project development at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Canada’s biggest engineering and construction company, said at the conference. “The commodities that we’re involved with, being copper, nickel, gold, iron ore, all seem to have positive signs and we hope to take advantage of that.”
Greenspan said yesterday the most severe recession in the U.S. in at least five decades may be ending and growth may resume at a rate faster than most economists foresee. Oil has jumped 56 percent in 2009 and copper has surged 86 percent.
China Growth Target
Roubini predicted on July 23 that the global economy will begin recovering near the end of 2009, before possibly dropping back into a recession by late 2010 or 2011 because of rising government debt, higher oil prices and a lack of job growth.
Economic growth in China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, accelerated in the second quarter, gaining 7.9 percent from a year earlier. China, the biggest contributor to global growth, overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest stock market by value on July 16 after the nation’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package spurred record lending and boosted prices of shares and commodities.
China will meet its target of 8 percent growth in gross domestic product this year, Roubini said. Manufacturing in China climbed for a fifth month in July as stimulus spending and subsidies for consumer purchases countered a collapse in exports, and helped companies from chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. to automaker General Motors Corp. as well as mining companies such as BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group.
China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.3 in July from 53.2 in June. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion. The manufacturing index has climbed from a record low of 38.8 in November.
Aussie Dollar, Aluminum
A rise in commodity prices may help the Australian dollar, Roubini said today, adding he is “bullish” on the currency. Countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada have so- called commodity currencies because raw materials generate more than 50 percent of their export revenues.
The Australian dollar today rose to the highest since September before retail sales and house price data tomorrow that may add to evidence the nation’s economy will rebound faster than the central bank forecast six months ago.
The price of aluminum, used in beverage cans and airplane parts, has declined by a third in the past year as the global recession crimped demand. A recovery in demand may be offset by the “huge amount of excess capacity,” which could be a risk to the price, Roubini said.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities has risen 12 percent this year. It jumped 3.9 percent on July 30 to 253.14, the biggest gain since March 19.
Slow Recovery
“That recovery will continue slowly, slowly over time,” Roubini said today. The global economy may contract 2 percent this year and swing to growth of 2.3 percent next year, he said.
Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron ore producer, said demand for metals is starting to recover and it will begin boosting output. Vale Chief Financial Officer Fabio Barbosa said on July 30 that “the worst is over”.
The price of oil may rise more than other commodities because of an expected rebound in demand, Roubini said separately in an interview with Bloomberg News. It may average between $70 and $75 a barrel next year, he said.
Oil Prices
Crude oil traded above $70 a barrel today for the first time in a month on speculation fuel demand will increase, amid signs the global economy is recovering from recession.
The U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, is likely to grow about 1 percent in the next two years, less than the 3 percent “trend,” Roubini said last month. President Barack Obama said on July 30 the U.S. may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.
In July 2006 Roubini predicted the financial crisis. In February of last year he forecast a “catastrophic” meltdown that central bankers would fail to prevent, leading to the bankruptcy of large banks with mortgage holdings and a “sharp drop” in equities. Since then, Bear Stearns Cos. was forced into a sale and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt, prompting banks to hoard cash and depriving businesses and households of access to capital.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)