Jose Minaya

Nuveen, a leading global investment manager, has agreed to acquire Greenworks Lending, a national leader in Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing. The acquisition gives Nuveen a foothold in the clean energy and energy efficiency lending market and will provide its clients access to an innovative and attractive clean energy investment.

“Greenworks is a pioneer in developing and scaling C-PACE as a cost-efficient marketplace solution for property owners and municipalities to pursue energy efficiency solutions for their commercial buildings,” says Jose Minaya, CEO of Nuveen. “The company is a triple-win demonstration of doing well by doing right: Investors get access to attractive yields, borrowers get a net reduction in operating costs through the utility savings, and the environment benefits too.”

Founded and led by Jessica Bailey and Alexandra Cooley, Greenworks’ mission is to reduce the global carbon footprint through compelling investment solutions in commercial and industrial properties, which are the largest real estate users of carbon in the United States. With C-PACE loans, commercial property owners are able to obtain attractive, long-term financing for energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy and climate resiliency projects.

The mission of Greenworks is aligned with one of the key tenets of Nuveen’s responsible investing platform: reducing the carbon footprint of commercial real estate. The economic impact is also impressive, as the property improvements are offset by energy cost savings, resulting in a cost-effective means to finance green new construction and property retrofits.

“We founded Greenworks with a mission to combat climate change by scaling clean energy in commercial buildings around the country. C-PACE brings benefits to local businesses, energy security, and the environment,” says Jessica Bailey, CEO of Greenworks . “In Nuveen, we found the ideal firm with a shared philosophy that can expand C-PACE to more property owners, through its diversified investment expertise in private credit, real estate and municipal finance, global reach and 50-year heritage of responsible investing.”

The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2021, subject to regulatory approval.

This acquisition will complement Nuveen’s existing commercial real estate lending platform, which manages almost $38.4 billion globally. Investing across the capital structure, the strategy seeks income-focused, stable and attractive, risk-adjusted total returns for investors through a diversified portfolio of investments.

Energy reduction has been the bedrock of Nuveen’s approach to sustainable real estate investment and management for well over a decade. Integrating ESG throughout the real estate investment management process to help preserve and create value for our clients in tomorrow’s world.

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Jose Minaya

Nuveen, a leading global investment manager with over $1 trillion of assets under management, has agreed to acquire Glennmont Partners, one of Europe’s largest renewable energy fund managers, to meet increasing global demand for environmentally responsible investments that also aim to provide alternative sources of attractive returns.

The acquisition will enhance Nuveen’s existing private infrastructure platform, which manages almost $3.7 billion across renewable energy, digital, telecoms, transportation and social infrastructure sectors globally and has delivered consistent investment performance for more than 10 years for the firm and its parent, TIAA.

“Glennmont has a proven track record of investment excellence in one of the most dynamic and fastest growing infrastructure sectors,” said Nuveen CEO Jose Minaya. “The Glennmont team also shares our values and our unwavering commitment to helping investors meet their long-term goals.”

Glennmont is singularly focused on clean energy infrastructure. Since its founding in 2008 by Joost Bergsma, Francesco Cacciabue, Peter Dickson and Scott Lawrence, the firm has provided attractive, risk-managed returns to a range of global institutions including pension funds, insurers, banks and wealth and asset managers across Europe. In 2019, Glennmont successfully raised over $1 billion for its third private fund, the largest amount ever raised for a dedicated European-focused clean energy fund at the time. Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) considerations are fundamental to Glenmont’s investment process, further aligning it with Nuveen’s 50-year heritage of responsible investing.

“My co-founders and I are delighted to be entering into this agreement with Nuveen, where we can continue our growth and deliver strong performance for investors from assets across new geographies in the US and Asia, while maintaining our focus on investments in Europe, which remains a key market for us,” says Joost Bergsma, Managing Partner and CEO of Glennmont Partners. “This acquisition will also enable Glennmont to better support the global decarbonisation agenda and help lead the clean energy transition.”

The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, and will see Nuveen take a 100% stake in Glennmont.

Glennmont will be Nuveen’s investment centre for clean energy infrastructure and will be integrated within Nuveen’s Real Assets platform, which also serves TIAA, while retaining its independent and proven investment process.

The acquisition aims to accelerate Glennmont’s growth in 2021 with a suite of new products backed by seed capital from Nuveen and TIAA that will target investment opportunities in European, U.S. and Asian markets across the equity and credit space. The acquisition takes Nuveen’s private real assets AUM to over $150bn, further diversifying the platform offering, which includes real estate, farmland, infrastructure, timberland, agribusiness, and commodities.  The platform is grounded by a long-term and sustainable investment philosophy that seeks to offer investors access to alpha-driven strategies that are deployed through a responsible investing lens.

Nuveen collectively serves over 100 clients in Asia Pacific across a wide range of investors including pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, banks and family offices. The firm offers a wide range of separate accounts and commingled funds to investors across a wide range of liquid and illiquid alternative strategies, including traditional equities and fixed income and private capital as well as real estate and real assets.

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