The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (Sajid Javid)
In June 2015, I announced plans to move UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) into the private sector. The company’s success means there is strong market interest in GIB from private sector investors and 100% Government funding is no longer needed.
The company fully supports this move which will give GIB the freedom it needs to grow and increase its impact with access to much more capital than if it stayed in Government hands. And it will further demonstrate that green investment can be profitable for mainstream investors and is not just the preserve of Government.
Today, I am formally launching a sale of GIB by inviting expressions of interest from bidders. Any parties interested in acquiring GIB are now invited to come forward. Interested parties will need to respond to a bidder information form which is being published today on the gov.uk website.
I am today laying a report to Parliament on the proposed disposal of shares in GIB with information on the kind of disposal intended, the expected timescale for the disposal, and our objectives for the disposal. This report is provided in fulfilment of provisions in the Enterprise Bill and is also being provided to Ministers in the devolved Administrations.
The report includes details of our plans to create a special share in GIB as part of the sale process. This will provide protection of the company’s green purposes following a sale by granting the independent holder of the share the right to approve or reject any proposal to change the green purposes of GIB. I first announced these plans in Parliament on 2 February, when opening Second Reading of the Enterprise Bill. Details were also set out in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s December 2015 report on the future of GIB which was published the same day and further details are provided in letters from GIB chairman, Lord Smith of Kelvin and from Baroness Neville Rolfe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills—copies of which will be laid in the Libraries of both Houses.
[HCWS573]