BNP Paribas Investment Partners agreed to a management buyout of BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners, which will be renamed Glennmont Partners, said Joost Bergsma, CEO of the new spinoff company.
Financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is scheduled to be completed within the next 10 weeks. BNP Paribas Clean Energy Partners manages about €437 million ($581 million) in clean energy investments.
BNP Paribas, which has a 12.5% stake in the fund, will continue to be an investor as well as provide distribution support. The remaining 20 investors are institutional investors, including insurance companies and pension funds. One investor is PGGM, the fiduciary manager of the €116 billion Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn, Zeist, Netherlands, said Mr. Bergsma, who is currently CEO of BNP Paribas CEP.
The decision to become an independent company “will mean that our managers' interests are even more aligned with those of our investors through long term equity ownership … and allow us to operate in a more agile decision-making environment,” Mr. Bergsma said in a telephone interview.
Another key contributor to the management buyout decision is increasing regulatory pressure for investment banks to separate private banking activities from other commercial banking services, Mr. Bergsma added.
All 12 employees currently at BNP Paribas CEP are expected to transfer over to the new company. In addition to Mr. Bergsma, other partners are Francesco Cacciabue, Glennmont Partners' chief financial officer; Peter Dickson, technical director; and Scott Lawrence, partner responsible for social investments.
