Green bank in profit for first time
The government’s Green Investment Bank (GIB) moved into profit in the past six months, it was revealed yesterday — coinciding with the government’s decision to sell off its £1.4bn stake in the enterprise.
At a London review, attended by chancellor George Osborne and business secretary Sajid Javid, the Edinburgh-based institution said it made a profit of £3m between 1 October 2014 and 31 March 2015, and a £100,000 profit between 1 April 2014-31 March 2015. This is the first profit in two and a half years of operations.
The GIB “will still be green, profitable and a leader in financing environmentally sound infrastructure”, Javid said at the review.
The lender was launched in 2012 with £3.8bn of public funding. According to the Department for Business, the bank has since committed £2bn to finance 50 green infrastructure projects, but the government hopes moving it into private hands will let it borrow and lend more freely.
Javid announced plans to bring it into private ownership yesterday, saying it is looking for new investors to power its growth.
The Conservative government’s plans to privatise the bank form part of a larger programme of selling government-backed businesses, such as the Royal Mail, to tackle the budget deficit.