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Green Stocks with Billionaire Sugar Daddies
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This is of course not always the case. Yet the wealthy don’t become rich by throwing their money away. When they make a major investment, you can generally assume that it has been well researched, and that the prospects for success are strong.
Green technology is in vogue. Well-heeled entrepreneurs such as Ted Turner and Richard Branson see it as the wave of the future, and are placing their money accordingly (in private companies). Some others have made big investments in public corporations.
Here are three US green stocks that have attracted some major billionaire money. And a further three Asian green companies (also listed on US markets) that have turned their founders into billionaires.
Pacific Ethanol, based in California, is the West Coast’s largest marketer and producer of ethanol, increasingly being used as a gasoline substitute. The company’s goal is to reach production capacity of 220 million gallons annually during 2008, rising to 420 million gallons in 2010. Much of this expansion is being financed by the company’s most famous investor, Bill Gates, who in 2006 paid $84 million for a 26 per cent equity stake. (In fact, it has not been a good investment, with ethanol company shares sharply down on high feedstock prices and the industry’s over-capacity.)
Valence Technology is a prominent Texas battery manufacturer that is producing energy storage devices for hybrid vehicles (including Segway Scooters). It counts among its main backers California real estate billionaire Carl Berg, who also serves on the company’s board of directors.
Verenium, with its headquarters in Massachusetts, is a leader in the race to commercialise cellulosic ethanol, which is made from numerous kinds of plant material, including some plant waste and some plants that can be grown very cheaply. At present ethanol serves as an adequate gasoline substitute for transportation purposes, but it is not notably cheap or efficient to produce. Some experts believe that low-cost cellulosic ethanol will eventually revolutionise the world of transport. Verenium’s shareholders include Sun Microsystems co-founder and billionaire Vinod Khosla.
LDK Solar, based in China, and founded only in 2005, is a leader in the design and manufacture of photovoltaic solar wafers for solar energy systems. Late in 2007 Forbes ranked the company’s boss, Peng Xiaofeng – who previously had been making gloves – as China’s sixth-richest person, with a net worth of $3.85 billion (which has since fallen with the decline in solar power share prices).
Suntech Power Holdings, also based in China, is the world’s largest solar module manufacturer. Its boss, Zhengrong Shi, was at one point China’s wealthiest citizen. As Forbes commented wryly: “Photovoltaics vendor Zhengrong Shi is worth only $2.2 billion. If he could just make solar power cost-effective, he could be really rich.”
Suzlon Energy is India’s – and one of the world’s – largest manufacturers of wind power turbines. Forbes has named founder and boss Tulsi Tanti as India’s fifth-richest man, with he and his family worth around $10 billion.
February 13th, 2008
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