Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc., an active investor in India’s renewable energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors, aims to raise as much as $5 billion for a new climate-focused fund to invest in emerging economies.
The Catalytic Transition Fund (CTF), launched in December 2023 in partnership with the UAE-based climate investment firm Alterra, is now seeking capital commitments from other institutional investors, Brookfield said in a statement.
Abu Dhabi-based Alterra is a $30-billion climate-focused investment manager established by the UAE’s Lunate last year at the COP28 climate conference. It has committed $1 billion to the CTF. Alterra aims to mobilize $250 billion globally by 2030 to finance the new climate economy and accelerate climate transition.
Brookfield said it expects the CTF to make its first close by the end of 2024. The new fund will focus on investing in clean energy and transition assets in emerging economies, the Canadian alternative investment firm.
For CTF, the target markets are South and Central America, South and Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Eastern Europe. Brookfield itself will contribute at least 10% of the fund’s total capital to ensure its interests align with that of its investment partners.
Brookfield is increasing its focus on drawing up a pipeline of potential investments in the clean energy space and pre-marketing to potential partners. In India, the firm last year invested $360 million to acquire a majority stake in renewable energy company CleanMax and decided to invest $1 billion in Avaada Group to help it finance green hydrogen and green ammonia ventures.
The CTF adds to similar vehicles launched by Brookfield earlier. Brookfield Global Transition Fund series (BGTF I) raised a record $15 billion in 2022. The second fund in the series, BGTF II, announced a first close of $10 billion in February this year and is on track to surpass its predecessor.
“Emerging markets will require $1.6 trillion per annum to help achieve their Paris-aligned decarbonization targets,” said Nawal Saini, Managing Director, Renewable Power and Transition, Brookfield Asset Management. “This represents a massive opportunity, especially in countries like India where Brookfield already is a significant player with $3 billion of equity committed over the past five years and with its platforms representing an asset pool of over 25 GW,” he said.
Brookfield manages over $925 billion of assets globally. It offers alternative investment products to both public and private pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and private wealth investors.