Green Investment Bank takes another step towards £2bn privatisation, with Macquarie in poll position
The Green Investment Bank (GIB) has taken another step towards its £2bn privatisation today.
Australian investment bank Macquarie is believed to be the government’s preferred bidder for GIB, beating competition from a consortium headed up by Sustainable Development Capital (SDC).
Read more: Branson laments total sale of Green Investment Bank
The GIB today announced the appointment of five environmental experts as trustees of the new private company, who will control a new “special share”.
The purpose of this share is to give the five experts “special voting power to ensure that GIB remains permanently under a legally enforceable obligation to invest exclusively in accordance with its green purposes”.
Read more: Sajid Javid fires starting gun on Green Investment Bank sale
The nominated trustees of the special share will be: James Curran, an environmental scientist and former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Trevor Hutchings, previously a senior civil servant at the Department of Energy and Climate Change; green infrastructure investor Tushita Ranchan; Lord Teverson, chair of the Lords’ EU select committee on energy and environment; and environmentalist Peter Young, founding director and former chair of Aldersgate Group.
Former business secretary Sajid Javid announced plans to sell GIB, which the coalition government set up in 2012, in March this year.