Wednesday 11 January 2017

Minal Patel, Ricardo Pineiro, and Matt Smith ...

Well, well ... / Oh, new partners at Foresight Group! Well done, guys! 'And girl, boss!' What?! Yes, Voice, give me a bloody chance! Well done, Minal! I haven't forgotten about you. / Well, well ...

Foresight Group ("Foresight"), a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager, is pleased to announce the promotion of Minal Patel, Ricardo Pineiro and Matt Smith to Partner as of 1st January 2017.

Yes, yes ... dear reader(s), it's the Wednesday morning PR email, back by popular demand. 'Ha! I bet you're glad they put that Foresight in speech marks for you.' Christ, yeah! You better believe it! I'd be lost without their help.

The promotions follow continued expansion in the Group during 2016, which has seen staff numbers increase by 21% to more than 150 as Foresight opened two new offices during the year, and assets under management increase by 28% to £2.3 billion.

Expansion, eh? Nice one. 'In these times? Not bad! Not bad at all.' Tell me about it! 'Okay, well -' Shut up, you idiot! / Let's do the rest of it -

Foresight opened a new office in Sydney, Australia to support the deployment of the A$100m Australian Bioenergy Fund and to explore opportunities in the Solar sector. In the UK the deployment of the Recycling and Waste ("RAW") Fund cornerstoned by the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) has continued with nine new investments into on-farm anaerobic digestion projects from the fund in 2016, many supporting the agricultural industry in Northern Ireland.

Uh ... okay.

Foresight has continued to expand its portfolio of solar power plants in the UK and funds managed by Foresight now own 76 operational solar plants with an enterprise value in excess of £1.5 billion and a generating capacity of 740MW.  Foresight Solar Fund Limited (ticker : FSFL) continues to deliver its 6.17p per annum target index-linked yield to investors and has a gross asset value of approximately £500 million, managing 16 solar assets across the UK with a generating capacity of 348MW, having successfully raised a further £61 million through a placement of treasury shares in September and a tap issue in October.

Yeah, okay, that's all great, but ... wasn't this supposed to be about the lovely Minal ... and those other two? 'Do the rest of the email, boss.' All right. What's this? -

In Italy, the Foresight and VEI Green joint venture, ForVEI, completed a €180 million refinancing package, which will support the creation of a 90MW utility scale platform owned, managed and operated by ForVEI. 

Yeah, yeah. And?

Foresight's Private Equity team launched the Foresight Regional Investment Fund in January 2016 with a series of events in the North West, opening a second regional office in Manchester, staffed by three investment professionals to support the deployment of the Fund. This team has already completed four investments from this £40 million fund, while the wider Foresight Private Equity team has completed a total of seventeen investments in the year with a total deployment in excess of £27.5 million.

What the hell is this?! Oh, that's enough! Seriously. 'I think we better get Bernard Fairman in, boss.' Who?! 'Bernard Fairman. Bernie. Our Bernie.' Who?! 'Christ! Bernard Fairman, the chairman of Foresight.' You mean Fairman the chairman? Oh, okay. 'He must have something to say about the new partners.' Let's hope so.

Bernard Fairman, Chairman of Foresight, commented: "As our business continues its rapid expansion, we will continue to promote regularly to add Partners who are able to contribute significant value add to the business. Matt, Minal and Ricardo have already made terrific contributions to their respective areas of focus, and we are delighted to welcome them formally into the Partnership, where I am confident they will all continue to help us in achieving our aims."

Well, well ... that's better! 'All's well that ends well, boss.' Yeah. You said it! Although there's a bit more. Some stuff on the firm -

About Foresight Group LLP ("Foresight"): Foresight Group is a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager which has been managing investment funds on behalf of institutions and retail clients for more than 30 years. Foresight has £2.3 billion of assets under management across a number of funds, including Listed Vehicles, Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).

With the Foresight in speech marks again. 'Good!' I'd be lost without that, you know.

Ah, that's it, reader(s). Laters.