Ambienta continues growth course with sustainable credit fund

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”), one of Europe’s largest and leading asset mana­gers focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, has been iden­ti­fy­ing compel­ling invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in private credit since announ­cing the first closing of the Ambi­enta Sustainable Credit Oppor­tu­ni­ties fund (“Ambi­enta Credit”) in Janu­ary this year. Ambi­enta Credit has scree­ned over 200 tran­sac­tions since the begin­ning of the year and has inves­ted in six tran­sac­tions. The strong inte­rest from compa­nies, manage­ment teams and owners vali­da­tes Ambienta’s approach of provi­ding borro­wers with insight and exper­tise on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, coupled with prudent and market-driven credit evalua­tion. The strong commit­ment has been supported by the recruit­ment of expe­ri­en­ced profes­sio­nals with language and struc­tu­ring skills, cove­ring all major Euro­pean markets and coming from leading private credit insti­tu­ti­ons. This comple­tes the build-up of the eight-strong team. Ambi­enta Credit’s port­fo­lio curr­ently consists of estab­lished compa­nies with average double-digit EBITDA margins and average annual reve­nue growth of over 10 percent, loca­ted in various Euro­pean regi­ons (Germany, France, UK, Italy and Ireland). The tran­sac­tions cover various sectors, inclu­ding water equip­ment, rail main­ten­ance, HVAC systems (heating, venti­la­tion, air condi­tio­ning) and house­hold power supply. — All compa­nies are united by the theme of envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity as a growth driver. With an average leverage of 2.8, the port­fo­lio has an average spread over Euri­bor of around 650 basis points[1]. All invest­ments are based on the solid sustaina­bi­lity rese­arch of Ambienta’s Sustaina­bi­lity & Stra­tegy team. The team consists of scien­tists and engi­neers who specia­lize in explo­ring how envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity trends are resha­ping value chains and entire indus­tries. An exam­ple of this synergy is Ambi­enta Credit’s invest­ment in a company that is redu­cing land­fill waste through its specia­li­zed retail model, lever­aging analy­sis from Ambienta’s recent Sustaina­bi­lity Lens[2] on the topic. Ambi­enta applies its custo­mi­zed and thoughtful approach to struc­ture two-sided margin ratchets[3] at a signi­fi­cant scale. This promo­tes a commit­ment to sustainable, long-term growth and value crea­tion, which is appre­cia­ted by the port­fo­lio compa­nies. As a result, the invest­ments have a measura­ble impact on all port­fo­lio compa­nies, whether through the crea­tion of an ESG report­ing frame­work, support with mate­rial sourcing chal­lenges or the imple­men­ta­tion of KPI metrics to measure ESG perfor­mance. The port­fo­lio has contri­bu­ted to 7 out of 11 of the metrics within Ambienta’s Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Analy­sis. For exam­ple, 12 million cubic meters of water were saved, which is equi­va­lent to the annual water consump­tion of more than 200,000 people, and almost 30,000 tons of pollut­ants were avoided, which is equi­va­lent to the annual waste gene­ra­tion of 150,000 people. 

Ran Land­mann, Part­ner and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer, and Nishan Srini­va­san, Part­ner and Head of Origi­na­tion, said: “We are deligh­ted with the success of our offe­ring to provide access to finance for mid-market compa­nies. Our enga­ge­ment with so many manage­ment teams, inves­tors and family busi­nesses proves that envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity is a consis­tent driver of growth.” Laurent Donin de Rosière, Part­ner and Head of Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons and Stra­te­gic Part­ner­ships, empha­si­zed: “The demand from limi­ted part­ners for authen­ti­cally sustainable invest­ments in the private credit sector is incre­asing, which is a very posi­tive development.”

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on invest­ments in private and listed compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 75 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

As a pioneer, Ambi­enta was one of the first signa­to­ries to the Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) in 2012 and achie­ved Bene­fit Corpo­ra­tion (B Corp) status in 2019. In 2020, Ambi­enta became a member of the Insti­tu­tio­nal Inves­tors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and in 2023 Ambi­enta set another posi­tive exam­ple for the indus­try by joining the Science-Based Targets Initia­tive (SBTi) as one of the few asset mana­gers to do so. www.ambientasgr.com

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on invest­ments in private and listed compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 75 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

As a pioneer, Ambi­enta was one of the first signa­to­ries to the Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) in 2012 and achie­ved Bene­fit Corpo­ra­tion (B Corp) status in 2019. In 2020, Ambi­enta became a member of the Insti­tu­tio­nal Inves­tors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and in 2023 Ambi­enta set another posi­tive exam­ple for the indus­try by joining the Science-Based Targets Initia­tive (SBTi) as one of the few asset mana­gers to do so. www.ambientasgr.com