Case Studies

Investing in Europe’s alternative energy future

Investment in green energy is required on a huge scale if Europe is to meet the targets it has been set to help tackle climate change, and private equity is playing an essential role in funding such projects.

Blackstone Group has invested more than €1 billion in Meerwind, an offshore wind farm project off Germany’s northern coast.

Powering a world beating solar energy company.

Private equity is a major investor in renewable energy technology, helping to provide long term solutions to Europe’s energy future and Q-Cells is a case study in how this model of ownership can help propel an SME into a major global player in a rapid growth market.

Private equity supports creation of world leader in in-vitro diagnostics.

During its time under private equity ownership, Sweden’s Phadia has become the global leader in in-vitro allergy diagnostics and the European leader in autoimmunity diagnostics.

Monica Healthcare is a spin-out company from the University of Nottingham.

Monica Healthcare has developed a technology, based on 15 years of research, which can successfully monitor the heart rate of an unborn baby for long periods at a time.

The technology is wireless and allows the mother to move around as normal, something which is not possible with other techniques.

Plastic Logic was spun out of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.

The company is building an iconic electronic book reader (e-reader) using its unique plastic displays which are flexible, light weight and much more robust than traditional glass-based displays.

E-readers built with Plastic Logic technology offer users a paperlike reading experience that previous e-reader products have not been able to provide.

Capital Stage AG is a publicly listed venture-capital company specialised in renewable energies and environmental technologies. The business plan they received in April 2007 was exactly 83 pages long. And the proposition it contained was ambitious: Construction of a manufacturing plant for technologically advanced silicon-based thin-film photovoltaic modules, with an annual production capacity of 33 MW.

i2O Water is addressing the increasingly urgent problem of global water scarcity. It has developed a system which significantly reduces leakage in water distribution systems and improves network monitoring and control.

The company was founded in 2005 by Adam Kingdon and Andrew Burrows with backing from a small group of angel investors. This enabled i2O Water to prove its concept, after which additional funds of £1.7 million were secured from a larger group of private investors and Nemadi Advisors in order to fully develop the prototype for i2O’s advanced pressure management solution.

Kebony has completed a 12 million financing round led by the Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF). The investment is to be used to support Kebony in its international expansion.A third of the world’s rainforests has disappeared in the last 50 years – equivalent to 8.5 million football pitches a year. The global demand for tropical hardwood simply cannot be satisfied sustainably – a major environmental issue. Kebony offers a solution, with a sustainable and cost efficient alternative to tropical hardwood.

CSR’s founders had developed a disruptive technology, combining digital and analogue circuits on a single chip for use in Bluetooth modems. The company received support from Private Equity investors with capital, networks and advice through to its IPO in March 2004.