Aquila Capital is an

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

with headquarters in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany. It was founded in 2001 and focuses on sustainable investments, including

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

and

green logistics Green logistics describes all attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impact of logistics activities. This includes all activities of the forward and reverse flows of products, information and services between the point of origin and the p ...

, as well as

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

. Aquila Capital manages more than €12.5 billion for

institutional investors An institutional investor is an entity which pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked co ...

and is among Europe’s leading investment companies in clean energy.

History

The company was founded in 2001 and began investing in agriculture and forestry, followed by hydropower (including storage), finally raising funds for solar and wind energy, as well as logistics and real estate. Since climate change is easy to predict due to CO² emissions, the company focused exclusively on sustainable investments. In 2016, Aquila Capital received public attention for launching a €500 million

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...

to invest in infrastructure assets and funds. It was open to both institutional and wealthy private investors. In 2018, Aquila Capital financed the expansion of European hydropower by entering a partnership with a Dutch pension investor. Furthermore, Aquila is investment adviser for the Aquila European Renewables Income Fund (AERIF), which raised €154.3 million during its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) in May 2020. In 2018, the company received the ''Swedish Renewable Energy Award'' for its commitment to the transition to a low carbon society. Aquila Capital was named ''European Hedge Fund Firm of the Year'' in 2010 and 2012. Due to continued growth, the company ranks among the largest investment managers in Europe. As of today, the company’s main business units are renewable energy, real estate, energy efficiency, timber and agriculture.

Operations

The company is part of Aquila Group, a holding for Aquila Capital, affiliated companies and brands. Aquila Capital is managed by Roman Rosslenbroich (

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

) and Dieter Rentsch (

Chief Investment Officer The chief investment officer (CIO) is a job title for the board level head of investments within an organization. The CIO's purpose is to understand, manage, and monitor their organization's portfolio of assets, devise strategies for growth, act as ...

), both co-founders of Aquila Group. In 2019, the infrastructure arm of

Daiwa Securities is a Japanese investment bank that is the second largest securities brokerage after Nomura Securities. Major subsidiaries include ''Daiwa Securities'', which offers retail services such as online trading to individual investors and investment ...

, a Japanese investment bank, acquired a 40 % stake of Aquila Capital. The company management is supported by an

advisory board An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to th ...

Activities

Aquila Capital has invested more than three billion euros in solar assets and more than two billion in wind assets. All energy plants together provide a power capacity of currently 10

gigawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

, which is to be expanded to 75

within ten years. The current operative portfolio corresponds to a CO₂ avoidance of around 1.2 million tonnes annually, which equals to the emissions of around 70,000 households. Besides its own activities, Aquila Capital is initiator and shareholder of ''KlimaInvest Green Concepts'', an energy and climate protection agency in Germany, which offsets carbon emissions on demand.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.aquila-capital.de Companies based in Hamburg Companies established in 2001 Financial services companies of Germany Alternative investment management companies