SuperReturn 2024: Key Insights on Energy Transition and Global Investment Strategies

SuperReturn is a landmark event for the private capital industry, bringing together over 5,000 decision-makers, including 1,500 Limited Partners (LPs) and 2,400 General Partners (GPs) from more than 70 countries. The conference featured a variety of summits and panels covering topics from private equity to technology and energy transition.

🔹 This year's edition of SuperReturn introduced a new focus on Energy Transition, where Alexander Romanishyn, our mentor, contributed to the panel discussion "Geographic Comparison: Where Do We Find Returns?"

🔹 Thank you Svetlana Fathers for opportunity to contribute and María Sanz García, CFA, Managing Director and Private Equity Co-Head, YIELCO Investments for excellent moderation!

🔹 The panel featured a diverse group of participants:

Isabella da Costa Mendes, Founding Partner and Co-CEO, ImpactA Global

Tove Larsson, General Partner, Norrsken VC

Matt Cunning, Vice President, Longbow Capital

Alexander Romanishyn, Former Deputy Minister of Economy, Strategy Director, Razom We Stand

🔹 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

📌𝐄𝐔 𝐯𝐬 𝐔𝐒 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬

- The EU's green subsidies are fragmented across various programs, while the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers a more centralized approach.

- The US focuses on deploying capital to scale up projects, whereas the EU emphasizes innovation.

📌𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬

- Subsidies and impact programs beyond just clean energy support investments in emerging markets, benefiting sectors like health, water, and sanitation.

- Larger emerging market jurisdictions tend to have some form of subsidies or tax incentives for green transition projects, though at a lower level than developed markets.

- Private sector companies in emerging markets often attempt to run operations efficiently to maximize carbon offsets, even without significant subsidies.

📌𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐒 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬

- For battery manufacturing investments in the US, monetizing IRA subsidies has been relatively straightforward.

- However, for carbon capture and storage projects, the credits are only achieved once operational, with a long lead time and ongoing monitoring requirements, making the process less straightforward.

📌𝐔𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

- Ukraine aims to build a decentralized system and integrate renewable capacity into small grid systems, presenting opportunities for new business models and funds.

- The European Commission approved a €50 billion facility for Ukraine's recovery over the next four years, with advocacy for 20% of pillar 1 and 2 to go towards green projects and renewables.

- This presents opportunities for private equity and VC funds to deploy capital into Ukraine's renewable