Ludgate to launch second green fund

“We see a lot of investment opportunities in the pipeline – in which we can invest a large amount,” Gijs Voskamp, Ludgate Investment’s chief executive, said.

The European Union is tightening regulation for recycling and recovering rubbish and has called for 50 per cent of household waste to be recycled by 2020 as a way to keep rubbish away from landfill sites. The EU has also proposed mandatory collection targets for electronic waste.

The first Ludgate Environmental Fund, launched on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM in 2001, has raised over $100m and invests in small to mid-cap businesses in the waste and recycling, energy efficiency, energy generation and water sectors, mostly in northern Europe.

The second fund will be two to three times bigger and have a similar focus, Ludgate said.

Since 2007, the current fund has made 16 company investments and achieved two full and one partial exit which delivered a total gross internal rate of return of 30 percent. Much of the portfolio is centred on UK-based companies, which are able to grow much quicker than in countries in other parts of northern Europe.

“Some continental European countries, like Germany, are a step ahead already in the waste and recycling area, so there is not much room for growth,” said Bill Weil, the firm’s chief investment officer.