Sebastian Speight, managing director at UK energy and infrastructure investor Ingenious Infrastructure, spoke to CEP this week about the company’s plans to invest in new clean energy infrastructure, its market expansion strategy, energy trends in 2017 and more. 

Read the full article here.

Earlier this month the Government published a wide ranging white paper (Fixing our broken housing market, February 2017) in an attempt to address the ‘broken’ housing market and its growing lack of supply. The paper praises existing schemes to help people get on the housing ladder, however admits that construction of new homes is still far behind the necessary target, recently increased to 275,000.

The principal focus of the paper is to bring sites to development more quickly. The Government wants to encourage Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to make more use of compulsory purchase powers on stalled developments, and to consider the likelihood of a development completing when assessing planning applications. LPAs may also be able to reduce the time limit to implement a planning permission from three years to two, and, if a major developer is involved, assess their track record of completing schemes promptly.

Other proposals include encouraging LPAs to increase housing density where viable, reducing the affordable housing requirement on new developments from 20% to 10%, and automatically approving sustainable schemes when LPAs are not meeting their new homes targets.

These are largely welcome measures, but the white paper has been widely denounced for not going far enough. For instance, critics have argued that local governments should be better incentivised by increasing how much they benefit from increased council tax revenue.

However the lack of development land persists. One solution to this is to build on the green belt, but the white paper states that it must be used as a last resort. This protected land covers 12.7% of England; more than the UK’s parks, allotments, golf courses, gardens and concrete combined. By one estimate there is enough green belt in Greater London to build 1.6m houses at average density; enough to cover London’s requirements for the next 30 years. Even releasing small parts of this, much of which is not the green rolling hills depicted by the NIMBYs, could make a significant difference.

Pressure for new homes will continue, and is not purely down to a lack of building. The UK population has grown by 11% in the past 20 years- twice the EU average- and people are marrying later and divorcing more readily meaning that one in ten of us now live alone. Many argue that a more favourable option would be brownfield sites, but while preferable to green belt, brownfield would provide less than half of the requirement up to 2030 for London alone. The gap between what is being built and what needs to be is widening, and experts agree that while not the entire solution, more development land must be released. Perhaps it’s time to loosen the belt?

Recent media reports relating to high-profile investors in Ingenious film partnerships have misrepresented the tax status of their investments and Ingenious’ film business.

These are not ‘tax avoidance schemes’. This is not just Ingenious’s view, it is also the judgment of the UK court.

Ingenious is the largest private investor in the UK creative industries. Ingenious’ investors have helped independent films such as Selma and Mr Turner come to screen and backed profitable blockbusters like Life of Pi and Avatar.

Ingenious is proud of its track record in supporting the UK film industry and looks forward to the release of its next feature, Viceroy’s House, on March 3rd.

Notes to editors:

HMRC has tried to claim that certain partnerships that utilised government tax breaks designed to support the UK film industry were set up for the purpose of avoiding tax.

However, a Tax Tribunal brought by Ingenious against HMRC to challenge this notion vindicated Ingenious’s position and ruled that they were bona fide businesses run for a commercial profit and that Ingenious investors were putting their money into legitimate film investment vehicles.

This stands in contrast to other film related tax cases that have been before the courts in recent years.

The exact amount of tax relief that Ingenious investors are able to claim is still in dispute and Ingenious will continue to fight for its investors’ interests.

Founded in 1998, Ingenious has produced and co-financed hundreds of feature films and more than 550 hours of television programming with partners including 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Lionsgate, Film4, Pathé, the BBC, ITV and Endemol Shine.

Ingenious is a serial investor in the global creative economy, having raised and deployed more than £8 billion across the sector.

Ingenious Real Estate is delighted to announce £12m of completed deals to finish 2016 on a high; a £6m transaction for an 18 unit mixed use development in Walthamstow and a £6m Bridging Loan for a developable site in Guildford.

We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver fast and high quality funding to experienced counterparties. To find out more about our development and bridging finance Click here

We are delighted to announce that the Ingenious backed production Topsy and Tim has been awarded the Children’s BAFTA for Pre-School Live Action. The popular CBeebies programme follows the everyday adventures of two fun-loving twins, based on the classic children’s books by Jean and Gareth Adamson.

Sixteen South, for whom Ingenious investee companies backed both series of Lily’s Driftwood Bay, also won a BAFTA for Independent Production Company. Thanking Ingenious as he collected the BAFTA, Sixteen South creative director Colin Williams said: “When I decided to try this whole TV business, there were three things that I said were really important: passion, heart and quality and over the last eight years, I’m thrilled to have been joined by an amazing group of people who also live and breathe these three things.”1

Having been involved in the production of a further five Children’s BAFTA nominees including Teletubbies, Sarah and Duck and Clangers, the ceremony which took place on 20 November was a resounding success for Ingenious.

[1] http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/cbeebies-heads-childrens-baftas/5111512.article?referrer=RSS

The aftermath of the EU Referendum sent UK Real Estate markets on an extended holiday this summer; however as we approach the end of year, a sense of normality seems to be returning, supported by the UK’s long term & structural shortage of supply issues and with developers set to benefit from further economic stimulus, an increasingly relaxed planning regime and our government’s target for one million new homes by 2020.

Although the full impact remains to be seen, in the short term, there are obvious opportunities in the market and Ingenious Real Estate is here and happy to help investors and developers. Our new Bridging Finance product is designed to help our clients move quickly to secure a site, similarly through our stretch senior product a developer can unlock a scheme that institutional lenders may not be prepared look at. I’m excited to add that the scope of our development finance product has recently been increased to include commercial property too.

Since the return from the summer lull, we are seeing a steady flow of enquiries from new and existing borrowers who recognise that we will all just have to get used to living in uncertain times and the world has not ended. In response we continue to seek out and be strongly supportive of opportunities where we can see track record and liquidity in markets. Our recent £7.5m loan to a scheme in Gerrard’s Cross is an excellent example of the type of transaction we are very keen to support.

Ingenious Real Estate is very much open for business, we have recently expanded both the team and our product range and will continue to do so. Despite uncertainty the next few months will see us winning mandates from new and existing clients drawing on our experience, contacts and expanded product range. If you have any opportunities you would like to discuss with us or would like to know more about any aspect of what we do feel free to get in touch. We can normally provide an indicative response in 48 hours. 

Ingenious Estate Planning (IEP), the discretionary fund management service (the Service) managed by leading alternative investment manager Ingenious, today announces two developments which will contribute considerably to the growth of its renewable energy capabilities. 

Through its investee company Ingenious Renewables Energy Enterprises Limited (IREEL), IEP has completed the acquisition of a 5MW ground mounted solar plant, Morton Wood Solar PV Plant (Morton Wood), from Solarig, the Spanish EPC contractor. The plant, located in Worcestershire, is projected to provide electricity to almost 1,300 average UK households and will save in the region of 2,200 tonnes of CO2 per year. It is also expected to receive 1.2 ROCs/MWh (Renewables Obligation Certificates) from the UK government enabling the plant, and subsequently the Service, to benefit from government-backed income for the next 20 years. Revenue will also be generated from the sale of electricity through a long-term bank approved Power Purchase Agreement with NEAS Energy.

This is the third ground mounted solar PV plant that IREEL has acquired from Solarig in just six months.  Ingenious Infrastructure’s portfolio of owned and/or managed ground-mounted solar projects now totals 120MW, producing over 115,000 MWh of solar power across the UK. 20MW of these projects are managed within the IEP Infrastructure portfolio. IREEL is currently negotiating the acquisition of another 10MW from Solarig.

The team also announces it has signed a £15 million long term finance facility with German bank, BayernLB. The agreement will unlock capital to aid the future development and acquisition of additional solar PV plants in the IEP portfolio.

Commenting on the deal, Karin Schramm, Senior Director, BayernLB, said “We have been working in partnership with Ingenious for a number of years, providing Ingenious Infrastructure with over £100 million of funding towards the development of renewable energy projects across the UK. With the team utilising the funding to deliver impressive projects such as Cowdown, a 40 MW solar PV plant in Hampshire, we remain confident in Ingenious’ collective experience and expertise as a market leader in this space.”

Commenting on both milestones, Roberto Castiglioni, Investment Director, Ingenious, said “The purchase of Morton Wood and the signing of the long term finance facility with BayernLB represent significant achievements for the IEP Infrastructure team as we continue in our efforts to bring renewable energy to thousands of households. Both transactions demonstrate our commitment to financing, developing and operating high quality investment opportunities in the UK which will bring value to shareholders and our IEP clients.” 

Ingenious is pleased to announce that Impresario Festivals plc (‘Impresario’) has completed the sale of its portfolio of festivals South West Four, Field Day, Boardmasters and Rewind Festival for an undisclosed sum to Global, an established company in the live entertainment and touring sectors, as well as the radio sector, owning UK radio stations such as Heart, Capital, Classic FM and Smooth.

This transaction demonstrates the success of Impresario’s strategy to buy and grow a number of festival brands within the UK live events market.  Since its launch in 2012, average attendees per day at Impresario’s UK festivals have grown over 20% to over 25,230 and the portfolio of festivals sold attracted a combined audience of 350,000 in 2016 alone.  Featured artists include The Chemical Brothers, Dizzee Rascal, Rick Astley and Tony Hadley along with many other well-known names.

Five productions backed by Ingenious’ Ingenious Broadcasting service have been nominated in the 2016 British Academy Children’s Awards.

Clangers, an animated series following a family of aliens who live on a planet not far from earth, received two nominations; Best Pre-School Animation and Best Writer. The show is narrated by Michael Palin and airs on CBeebies. Ingenious’ Sarah & Duck is also nominated for Best Pre-School Animation.

High School entertainment show, So Awkward, received a nomination for Best Comedy Programme and both Topsy & Tim and Teletubbies have been nominated in the Best Pre-School Live Action category.

The ceremony will be held at the Roundhouse, London, on Sunday 20 November. See the full list of Nominees here. 

Ingenious Estate Planning (IEP), the discretionary fund management service (the Service) managed by leading alternative investment manager Ingenious, today announced that through its investee company Ingenious Renewables Energy Enterprises Limited (IREEL) it has completed the acquisition of a 5MW ground mounted solar plant, Morton Wood Solar PV Plant (Morton Wood), from Solarig, the Spanish EPC contractor.

The plant, located in Worcestershire, is projected to provide electricity to almost 1,300 average UK households and will save in the region of 2,200 tonnes of CO2 per year. It is also expected to be accredited to receive 1.2 ROCs/MWh (Renewables Obligation Certificates) from the UK government enabling the plant, and subsequently the Service, to receive government-backed income for the next 20 years. Revenue will also be generated from the sale of electricity through a long-term bank approved Power Purchase Agreement with NEAS Energy.

This is the third ground mounted solar PV plant that IREEL has acquired from Solarig in just six months, marking another milestone in Ingenious Infrastructure’s growing presence in the UK renewable energy market. The division’s portfolio of owned and/or managed ground-mounted solar projects now totals 120MW, producing over 115,000 MWh of solar power across the UK. 20MW of these projects are managed within the IEP clean energy portfolio. IREEL is currently negotiating the acquisition of another 10MW from Solarig.

Commenting on the deal, Roberto Castiglioni, Investment Director, Ingenious, said “The purchase of Morton Wood is another significant development for the IEP Infrastructure team. As well as providing solar energy to over a thousand households, the transaction demonstrates our ongoing commitment to financing, developing and operating high quality investment opportunities in the UK which will bring value to our IEP clients.”