New joint venture undertakes commercially oriented private equity investments across Asia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), ORIX Corporation and Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. (Robeco) jointly announced the formation of Asia Climate Partners (ACP), a joint venture that will undertake commercially-oriented private equity investments across a variety of environmentally supportive, low-carbon transactions throughout Asia here on Tuesday.

ACP will be based in Hong Kong with capitalization of around 400 million dollars by its founding partners and staffed by a team of experienced private equity investment professionals.

"We believe that ACP provides an innovative platform to deploy capital into climate-related transactions across Asia that are designed to generate attractive returns," said Todd Freeland, Director General of ADB's Private Sector Operations Department.

ACP includes investing in renewable energy, clean technology, natural resource efficiency, water, agriculture, forestry and other climate-friendly companies and transactions that are structured to generate market-driven, risk-adjusted returns and have a positive environmental and social impact.

"ACP will benefit from the combined strengths of Robeco as a global asset manager and ORIX and ADB, which are two of the most active and successful investors in the low-carbon sector in Asia. The substantial resources that the founding partners are committing to ACP will help position it as the preeminent investor in this asset class in Asia from day one, and represents a clear signal of the depth of our collective belief in the investment strategy and its return potential." said Todd Freeland, Director General of ADB's Private Sector Operations Department.

ADB has been playing an important role in helping Asia onto a green growth path by providing financial assistance as well as by supporting innovative technologies.

From 2011 to 2013, ADB mobilized almost 10 billion dollars in climate-related financing, comprising 9.5 billion dollars in loans, grants, guarantees, and equity investments, and 407 million dollars in technical assistance.

It has also provided 8.6 billion dollars while other partners contributed 1.4 billion dollars.

Climate change related and sustainable investments support ADB's development agenda while still providing a good return for private sector investors.

"I am delighted that ADB has chosen Robeco to act as investment manager of this exciting joint venture platform," Leni Boeren, member of the Management Board of Robeco said.

Established in 1964, ORIX Corporation is a financial services group which provides innovative products and services to its customers by constantly pursuing new businesses.

It has advanced into neighboring fields and at present has expanded into lending, investment, life insurance, banking, asset management, automobile related, real estate and environment and energy related businesses.

"ORIX has established an extensive network through more than 40 years as an active investor, owner and operator of businesses throughout Asia," Yuichi Nishigori, Corporate Senior Vice President at ORIX, said.