Colesco Capital’s sustainable direct lending platform raises over €800m in its first close
Utrecht / London / Antwerp, 28/01/2025 – Colesco, a sustainability-led direct lender with a mission to unite capital and purpose, has raised in excess of €800m in its first platform close, welcoming APG and Rabobank as cornerstone investors.
Colesco’s investment strategy targets attractive returns while delivering real life impact, by supporting leading European mid-market businesses that contribute to the transition to a more sustainable society. Backed by its proprietary Responsible Investment Framework, Colesco is committed to making over 50% of sustainable investments[1] with the remaining in companies who demonstrate a clear pathway to becoming a sustainable investment over time. In addition, over and above realising financial returns, half of the performance-related fees are directly connected to realising the platform’s sustainability KPIs.
Colesco strives to make transitional investments in companies that are providing solutions to environmental and societal challenges, with a focus on three core themes: Sustainable Food, Energy Transition, and Inclusive Society.
Through robust credit underwriting, sustainability integration and measurement, Colesco simultaneously combines the ability to deliver real life impact with a no compromise model – generating alpha by selecting assets that yield attractive risk adjusted returns while meeting both the sustainability and credit quality bar. Colesco will provide regular and comprehensive reports on the outcomes of investments by including the use of sustainability KPIs and the IRIS+ framework to clearly translate impact intentions into measurable results.
Both APG and Rabobank are sustainability-led investors who share Colesco’s investment philosophy and vision. This clear strategic alignment explains their participation as cornerstone investors in the first close of the platform.
Menno van den Elsaker, Head of Alternative Credits at APG commented: “At APG, on behalf of our clients ABP, bpfBouw, and PPF APG, we are committed to establish leading sustainability investment practices within the (European) private credit market. In Colesco, we have found a partner that shares this ambition. Colesco stood out as one of the few managers able to deliver on our requirements with respect to sustainable investments and to deliver attractive investment returns for our clients in a responsible manner. With this investment we are especially excited to support the sustainable growth ambitions of companies in the Netherlands.”
Stefaan Decraene, Chair of Rabobank’s Managing Board said: “This investment is a testament to the confidence we have in Colesco. Its strategy is in line with Rabobank’s mission to grow a better world together. By working with partners like Colesco, we can help to accelerate the sustainable transitions needed to future-proof the food and energy systems across the globe.”
Danny Vroegop, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Colesco said: “The first closing of our platform represents a significant milestone. It demonstrates our added value in the current European direct lending market and highlights how specialised managers that align with specific themes can be very relevant to the current needs of investors.”
Robin van den Brandhof, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Colesco added: "We are proud to welcome APG and Rabobank as our cornerstone investors – two like-minded partners with sustainability at their heart. They are both strongly committed to supporting the mobilisation of institutional capital to aid the sustainable transition of businesses across Europe and have put their trust in Colesco to help them deliver on this.”
Disclaimer: Colesco Capital’s direct lending platform is for professional investors only.
For further information please contact:
Amy Williams,info@colescocapital.com,+44 (0) 7734671067
About Colesco
Colesco is an innovative direct lender with a mission to unite capital and purpose. It provides senior secured debt (including unitranche loans) and subordinated debt to leading European mid-market companies (between €10m-€100m EBITDA) that seek to achieve their sustainable growth ambitions. With a clear focus on thematic investing and a wide network in both its home market of the Benelux and across Europe, Colesco is a reliable, long-term partner to companies that want to realise their growth ambitions while offering investors the advantages of a growing private debt market.
www.colescocapital.com or follow Colesco on LinkedIn
About APG
As the largest pension services provider in the Netherlands APG looks after the pensions of 4.6 million participants. APG provides executive consultancy, asset management, pension administration, pension communication and employer services. We work for pension funds and employers in the sectors of education, government, construction, cleaning, housing associations, sheltered employment organizations, medical specialists, and architects. APG manages approximately €577 billion (June 2024) in pension assets. With approximately 4,000 employees we work from Heerlen, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
www.apg.nl
About Rabobank Group
Rabobank is an international financial services provider operating on the basis of cooperative principles. It offers retail banking, wholesale banking, private banking, leasing and real estate services. As a cooperative bank, Rabobank puts customers’ interests first in its services. Rabobank is committed to being a leading customer-focused cooperative bank in the Netherlands and a leading food and agri bank worldwide. Rabobank employed 49,000 FTE per 31 December 2023. Rabobank Group is active in 37 countries.
For more information about the Rabobank Group go to www.rabobank.com.
[1] As defined in Article 2(17) of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)