Aussies revamp Green Bank after £2.3 billion UK sell-off

Former Thames Water owner Macquarie rebranded the Green Investment Bank on Friday after signalling more deals outside Britain.

The company formally completed the £2.3 billion takeover of the bank from the government, in a deal also backed by British university lecturers’ pension fund USS.

In a sign of the Aussie bank’s bid to push outside the UK and Europe, it will change the former state-owned business’s name to Green Investment Group.

Macquarie said using the word “bank” is difficult overseas due to legal and regulatory barriers in international markets. It said there would be “added scope to expand internationally” under its ownership

Lord Smith of Kelvin, the chair of the group, said he hoped it would “go on to bigger and better things” under Macquarie.

Green Investment Group will be led by Edward Northam, the top investment banker at the Green Investment Bank, after current chief executive Shaun Kingsbury stepped down.

Green Investment staff will remain in Edinburgh but its London-based staff will move into Macquarie offices in Moorgate.

The government’s sale of the bank, set up in 2012, has proved controversial over fears Macquarie will start offloading assets to book the profits.

The sale has been criticised by MPs like Vince Cable, who helped set up the bank, and Greenpeace, which called the sale a “disaster”.

Macquarie’s ownership of Thames Water, which came to an end this year, was criticised after it paid little tax on the annual profits.

The group used to own the M6 toll road and part-owns Arqiva masts.

Macquarie outpaced a rival bid from UK-based Sustainable Development Capital, which was backed by pension lifeboat the Pension Protection Fund.