China cleantech firm Nature Elements cuts fundraising target

According to The South China Morning Post, the firm has already raised $40 million but has cut its target by 43% as investors have become more risk-averse due to global economic uncertainty. Having originally set out to raise $350 million, Nature Elements now expects to reach a close of $200 million by the end of the year.

"This has made fundraising more challenging, but at the same time it makes investing easier as cheap assets abound," said Ka-keung Chan, founder of Nature Elements and former renewable energy head of Hong Kong utility CLP Holdings.

Chan, who is also former head of Greater China investments at Climate Change Capital, added that while the bond-buying spree by the US Federal Reserve had theoretically increased the supply of capital, banks were holding on to most of the funds, making LP commitments harder to come by.

Nature Elements was set up in 2009 to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency and environmental protection. Of the $40 million raised so far, US$8 million came from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. IFC will contribute a further US$17 million in future rounds of capital raising by the fund.

Nature Elements attracted RMB250 million ($40.1 million) for a reminbi-denominated regional energy fund in 2011 and has invested one third of it, including a RMB87 million commitment to two waste-to-energy technology firms.

Some RMB100 million of the corpus was contributed by the Chongqing government and the central government-backed State Development & Investment Corporation's technology investment arm, SDIC Hi-Tech Investment.

 

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• Cleantech
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