KKR backs Australia environment services player

GreenCollar helps landowners develop land-based projects that allow companies offset their carbon footprint, including revenue-generating forest protection and land restoration programs. Once projects are operational, GreenCollar facilitates the sale of the resulting credits to private and public organizations seeking to manage their environmental impact.

The company claims to be the largest player of its kind in Australia and is recognized as a pioneer of the local carbon market, having secured contracts representing 65 million Australian carbon credit units since inception in 2011. It is currently expanding the concept with a similar scheme to improve water quality around the Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

“This acquisition is both a culmination of part of the development of our long term strategy and the beginning of the new phase of our growth with a virtually limitless horizon,” Lewis Tyndall, a co-founder of GreenCollar, said in a statement. “KKR has already brought dynamism and capacity to exciting sustainability initiatives planned but not implemented until we found the right partner.”

It marks the first Australian investment and third Asia Pacific investment for KKR’s global impact fund, which closed earlier this year at $1.3 billion, one third of which will be deployed in the region. The mandate is to invest middle-market companies addressing the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDG). GreenCollar was identified as contributing to three SDGs, including action on climate change, and land and marine conservation.

“The company’s entrepreneurial and collaborative culture has made them the clear leader in the Australian carbon market,” George Aitken, a director on KKR’s private equity team in Australia, added. “Working together, we can help GreenCollar accelerate innovation in carbon markets and also support the development of other market-based solutions to tackle environmental issues such as water quality, plastics and biodiversity.”

KKR claims to have invested more than $7 billion in businesses that address social imperatives such as green energy, workforce development, and clean water protection. Recent Asian activity includes the $510 million acquisition of a majority stake in Indian waste management solutions provider Ramky Enviro Engineers and a S$45 million ($32.3 million) commitment to Singapore’s Barghest Building Performance, a specialist in efficient heating and cooling systems for buildings.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Expansion
• Industrials
• Australia
• KKR
• ESG
• Agriculture
• Impact investment