Green Investment Bank sold to Australian firm

What does this mean?

The Green Investment Bank (GIB), which was set up by the UK government just five years ago has been sold to Macquarie Bank, with a total value of £2.3bn.

The Treasury has managed to secure £1.7bn, a further £600m of liabilities have been passed on to the Australian firm.

The bank was set up to help fund renewable and low-carbon projects, it has invested around £800m per year so far.

The new deal with Macquarie should see this number rise to £3bn per year over three years.

Lord Smith of Kelvin, chairman of the GIB, said: “Macquarie has made significant and important commitments to the UK government to maintain GIB as a discrete entity within its business, maintaining GIB’s investment focus and approach with a target to invest more capital each year than GIB has historically.”

Lord Smith also added: “Macquarie will also uphold GIB’s green investment principles and report transparently on GIB’s green impact.

“Macquarie will utilise the market-leading expertise of the existing GIB team and will build on GIB’s deep commitment to Edinburgh.”