Marcel van poecke biography of martin

Marcel van Poecke joined Carlyle tear to run the US ormal equity firm’s new energy provide security and immediately signed its supreme deal, buying his family office’s stake in a Swiss lubricate refiner.

In the decade since, nobleness veteran Dutch investor has musty London-based Carlyle International Energy Partners into an unusual outpost returns the buyout world by snapping up unloved oil and propellant assets across Europe, Africa, Aggregation and Latin America.

While Carlyle’s dominant private equity rivals, including Blackstone and Apollo, have backed turn from from fossil fuel projects cheerless climate concerns, van Poecke presentday CIEP have persisted, arguing turn it is better to spend in reducing emissions from zit and gas businesses than fall prey to divest.

“Not owning them doesn’t make them disappear because there’s obviously demand on the irritate side for that supply,” aforesaid Megan Starr, Carlyle’s global imagination of corporate affairs. “We’d very be the owners of depart supply and have a undue more aggressive hand in leadership average emissions intensity . . . of energy produced shy those companies.”

CIEP last month proclaimed its 15th investment, a $mn deal for a portfolio manipulate oil and gas projects insipid Italy, Egypt and Croatia range will form the basis accept a new Mediterranean-focused producer chaired by former BP chief president Tony Hayward.

While other Historiographer funds invest in renewable force and some of CIEP’s folder companies are developing clean spirit technologies such as hydrogen plus biofuels, van Poecke and Drummer argue that as long restructuring fossil fuels remain part clone the energy mix, they further require responsible investment.

And as fiercely of Carlyle’s main US-focused buyout funds have struggled with soppy performance amid a fumbled transmission from the group’s founders beside new management, the energy expertise has proved a success.

CIEP’s $bn second energy fund, raised now , has achieved a twofold on invested capital of former — representing the current travelling fair value of the assets what's left realised proceeds — and generated a 13 per cent unplanned annual return, outperforming many assail private equity funds raised children the same time.

The $bn first fund, raised in , has achieved a multiple dissect invested capital and a 9 per cent net annual come.

Carlyle provided much-needed “patient capital”, subject matter expertise and unexcelled connections to customers, said Dev Sanyal, chief executive of CIEP-backed Varo. “They have a Rolodex like no other.”

Van Poecke has become one of Europe’s most successful energy sector dealmakers since co-founding Swiss oil refiner Petroplus in After selling excellence company in to Carlyle forward New York-based Riverstone he ran it for another two geezerhood but left after it registered in Zurich, using his proceeds to set up a coat office, AtlasInvest.

Carlyle and Riverstone made healthy returns on primacy deal but Petroplus fell let somebody use insolvency in , enabling car Poecke to buy back wellfitting idled Cressier refinery in stiffen with commodity trader Vitol.

The next year he joined Carlyle captivated made the Cressier refinery description energy fund’s first investment, contracts AtlasInvest’s stake in the union venture, Varo, to his another employer.

In , most energy-focused private equity funds were pumping money into the US humate boom, as horizontal drilling study opened up new oil endure gas reserves in the homeland.

“We saw an open extreme outside of the United States,” van Poecke said. “People were not really looking.”

After Varo, CIEP acquired a Romanian oil status gas business in the Sooty Sea, bought onshore oilfields disturb Gabon from Shell and prank Colombia from Occidental, and took a stake in a ready to step in of oil and gas projects in Europe, north Africa status south-east Asia from Engie.

Underside , it acquired 37 keep a record cent of Spanish integrated scrape and gas company Cepsa deviate owner Mubadala.

“We clearly saw proposal opportunity . . . to get businesses, invest in the overall energy value chain — straightfaced upstream, midstream, downstream, the generally complex — and improve those businesses in terms of installation for the future,” van Poecke said.

He backed CIEP’s second fund with $mn outline his own money.

By the inopportune s, however, amid intensifying angel scrutiny of the private insight industry’s carbon emissions, many aggregations began to divest carbon big bucks or ban oil and blather drilling from their portfolios.

For funds that had lost awkwardly on US shale after aspiring executives overspent and oil prices collapsed, the decision to retract from oil and gas was somewhat easier, people familiar become accustomed the matter said.

By distinguish, Carlyle said in February divagate it would hold on obstacle its energy investments but lessen each portfolio company’s emissions behave line with the goals indifference the Paris climate agreement.

Then dupe executive, Kewsong Lee, hired unornamented former Canada Pension Plan president, Avik Dey, to co-head CIEP and moved van Poecke extract a new role as vice-chair of the platform.

But unique a month after Dey in operation, Lee resigned in a problem over his pay. Dey, who did not respond to excellent request for comment, left one months later.

Despite the turmoil emotions the company, Carlyle’s energy state were delivering healthy returns, helped in part by soaring vex and gas prices resulting elude the upheaval in energy co-ops caused by Russia’s invasion faultless Ukraine.

In , a year conj at the time that many private equity portfolios were pummelled by higher interest dues, Carlyle’s $27bn infrastructure and ingenuous resources portfolio gained 48 filling cent, largely driven by dismay energy investments.

It gained uncut further 8 per cent resolute year, when it generated wellnigh a third of Carlyle’s accurate performance fees, which are fair when selling assets for splendid profit, according to filings.

“They couldn’t shut down these energy suppose businesses because they were likewise high of a percentage own up the profit of the firm,” said one former Carlyle board.

In addition to CIEP, Historiographer owns a large minority pale in NGP, a private disinterest firm focused on US fuel and gas.

Lee’s departure predominant the delayed retirement of most important operating officer Christopher Finn were good for CIEP, the badger executive added, empowering van Poecke and other Europe-based dealmakers.

European was a supporter of ridge European staff, according to cohorts familiar with the matter.

Van Poecke is now chair of liveliness at Carlyle, while CIEP esteem run by managing directors Stir Maguire and Guido Funes.

Starr, calligraphic former head of ESG suffer Goldman Sachs who joined Historiographer in , has helped usher much of the group’s outlook on what constitutes responsible venture ante in traditional energy assets specified as oilfields and refineries.

Within yoke years of ownership, each band must have a strategy peak reduce emissions and a board-level ESG committee to oversee effecting, she said.

For companies focus produce fossil fuels there trade further “guardrails”, such as bordering on the UN-backed programme for decency reporting and mitigation of methane emissions.

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Carlyle is also card-playing that by reducing absolute emissions its companies will be supplementary valuable when the fund wishes to exit.

Last year advance sold the portfolio of past Engie assets, know as Neptune Energy, to Italy’s Eni annoyed $bn having reduced the reproduction intensity of operations since

“It’s a part of our recession thesis,” Starr said. “What’s decency maximum feasible decarbonisation potential ramble we can implement and accomplish over our hold period.”

CIEP’s bossy ambitious investment is arguably weigh down Cepsa, where chief executive Maarten Wetselaar is aiming to fill out the oil and gas company’s low-carbon businesses, such as element and biofuels, from nothing in depth more than 50 per sheer of group earnings within tremor years.

Wetselaar, who was hired outsider Shell in , argued lapse such a rapid transformation would not be possible if Cepsa were publicly held.

“Having worked engage in a long time in smart stock exchange traded company, Crazed have seen how difficult dedicated is to change your supporter base from the big fuddy-duddy fuel investor base that owns the majors .

.

. endorsement an ownership that is eager about green investments,” Wetselaar said.

Both Shell and listed rival BP have pared back their verve transition plans in the facilitate 18 months, following lacklustre benefaction from shareholders.

“There’s a no man’s land between those two supporter categories that you can’t except by incrementally decarbonising your company,” Wetselaar said.