Haven Wealth, an Australian faith-based ethical investment platform, is set to launch a renewable energy fund and a social infrastructure fund in 2023.
The largest sustainable fund Haven Wealth is currently building is the VTara Renewable energy fund, ISFI has learned. It is seeking the better part of US$1 billion to build seven biofuel refineries across India, Singapore, Malaysia and northern Australia.
Haven Wealth, which was established in 2020 and launched its first fund in 2021, has partnered with renewable energy solutions provider VTARA Energy Group (VTARA), which has its operations based in India, to use energy cane to generate biofuel. It has secured a 15-year offtake agreement for compressed biogas with a large fuel company from the region.
The five-year US$900 million renewable energy fund will be funded in three tranches, with the first tranche worth around US$200 million to build the first two refineries in Maharashtra, India. Currently, the production of the first refinery is about to start, which VTARA is self-funding.
Before the ground is shovel-ready, the energy cane seedlings will be sold to farmers. Simultaneously, VTARA will sign an offtake agreement to purchase the harvest from the farmers in 12 months. The farmers and the land have been locked-in with governmental support. The arrangement will be repeated annually and will be renewable on a 15-year cycle.
“We are creating industries for farmers who perhaps haven’t had a great deal of success farming the land. And, importantly, the land that’s being used is not land that’s currently being used for food production. It’s virgin land, which is almost unusable because of the terrain, the rainfall and so on,” Nick Heuzenroeder, CEO of Haven Wealth, told ISFI.
The project is expected to generate 320 tons of compressed biogas, 1,000 megatons of green hydrogen, 200 kiloliters of green diesel, 200 kiloliters of 2G ethanol and 25 megawatts of power a day.
Also in its pipeline is the NDIS Social Infrastructure Fund with an investment size of US$120 million. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an Australian government program that funds costs associated with disability.
The five-year fund will finance the purchase of a real estate portfolio for a supported independent living and supported disability accommodation service provider which has a shortage of housing for its thousands of clients who are currently receiving the NDIS payments, Heuzenroeder shared.
“What this pool of funds would do is it would effectively go out and purchase a portfolio of residential properties which their clients would then be able to use and the NDIS would effectively pay their rent,” Nick added.
Haven Wealth is in talks with several sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Asia Pacific to secure the funding and launch the NDIS Fund.
Both sustainable funds will be seeking sustainability labeling as well as external Shariah pronouncements.