Government to sell off Green Bank shares
BUSINESS Secretary Sajid Javid will today confirm the government’s plans to sell off shares in its Green Investment Bank (GIB), a state-supported lender to green infrastructure projects.
It was first reported over the weekend that Bank of America Merrill Lynch was working with Whitehall officials on plans to sell a stake in GIB.
At GIB’s annual review event today, Javid will say it is the right time to begin privatising the bank.
“The Green Investment Bank has shown that investment in green technologies can be a profitable business,” Javid will say. “The challenge now is to build on this success,” he will comment.
“The bank will still be green, still be profitable, still be a market-leader in financing environmentally sound infrastructure,” he will add. “But free from limitations on where it can borrow money and EU regulations on state aid, the bank will be able to access a much greater volume of capital.”
The lender was launched in 2012 with £3.8bn of public funding. According to the business department, the bank has since committed £2bn to finance 50 green infrastructure projects.