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Green Giraffe targets Latin American power via new hire

INFRA LATIN AMERICA, 25 September 2015

Eckhardt, will lead the firm’s Latin America expansion. Prior to joining Green Giraffe this month,he was vice president of power generation and transmission business for KfW-IPEX Bank in New York. “The top three countries for renewables are Chile, Mexico and Brazil, but we also see space for our tailormade services in the smaller markets of the region” he said in a phone interview. “We are planning to offer our full product range, i.e. advising on equity and debt deals, as well as on strategic questions. We will also offer financial modelling services”.

Eckhardt will be initially based in Boston, with other team members in Paris and London also working on Latin America. A final decision has not been taken as to the location of a permanent office. At KfW-IPEX, his prime responsibility was to develop the bank’s American power generation and transmission business. He had previously spent several years in the bank’s renewable energy team in Frankfurt and lead the financing of more than 2 GW across onshore and offshore wind, as well as solar and biogas projects.

While a top player in Europe, regularly to be found at the top of the InfraDeals league tables, Green Giraffe is relatively unknown in Latin America. “Green Giraffe is planning to leverage existing relationships it has on the developer and investor side with big international funds and developers and add value with its unique sector and process know-how” Eckhardt said. 

“We will look to add value by being sector focused and entering deals at an early stage,” he added. “We will leverage our extensive experience of being involved in big projects from an early stage. We will also continue to bring our strong knowledge of export credit agencies to the table to grow the franchise in Latin America,” he added.

The firm is taking a committed but cautious approach to the region. “We haven’t been set a target for the number of projects we need, but we want to build up the number while avoiding anything we can’t deliver on,” Eckhardt said.

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Green Giraffe targets Latin American power via new hire

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