Denham Capital and GreenWish Partners sign strategic partnership for Africa

Denham Capital and GreenWish Partners have announced a partnership to develop, build and finance a portfolio of 600 MW of renewable energy assets across sub-Saharan Africa by 2020. The capital commitment will allow the African renewables platform to carry out a US$1 billion project pipeline.

GreenWish was founded by Aubin-Kalaidjian in 2010, whose 20 years of experience includes renewable energy investment work with the company and in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, and Gilles Parmentier, who spent a decade in the energy infrastructure sector, including with the World Bank and Macquarie. Together, the two founders have successfully structured over 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy projects and funded over $10 billion in projects.

Denham Capital is an energy and resources-focused global private equity firm with more than US$8.4 billion of invested and committed capital across seven fund vehicles and offices in London, Boston, Houston, and Perth. The firm makes direct investments in the energy and resources sectors, including businesses involving power generation, oil and gas, and mining, across the globe and all stages of the corporate lifecycle. 

Charlotte Aubin-Kalaidjian, CEO of GreenWish, said, 

“We look forward to partnering with Denham for this expansion phase of GreenWish in sub-Saharan Africa. Independent power producers such as GreenWish are a key solution to the African electricity gap that requires more than $40 billion in annual investments. Our strategic partnership with Denham gives us the means and scale to carry out our ambition and mission for a competitive and sustainable electrification of Africa.”

Parmentier, Chief Investment Officer at GreenWish, explained:

"We focus on countries where renewable energy projects offer a competitive solution to the power gap, without subsidies. GreenWish is looking at both on and off-grid projects in a number of countries and aims at offering B2B solar hybrid solutions to energy intensive industries, including telecom operators, mining and commercial off-takers."

"It’s rare to find a management team that has the experience developing power projects in sub-Saharan Africa Charlotte, Gilles and the rest of the GreenWish team possesses," shared Scott Mackin, Managing Partner and Co-President at Denham Capital. "While they have an ambitious goal, we are confident they will be able to deliver cost-competitive and much-needed power generation resources to the region because of their strong sense of personal commitment to the effort and their track record.”

Jens Thomassen, Director at Denham Capital, concluded,

"Sub-Saharan Africa is the most underserved power region in the world, but with a tremendous potential. The biggest constraint we see is human capital. In GreenWish, we have found a proven management team that can build power plants in a local setting and to an international standard. GreenWish is a prime example of a team that possesses the network and know-how to provide development opportunities. They are built to thrive in this evolving environment and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead for them”.