The pension asset manager made the deal on behalf of Dutch healthcare scheme PFWZ, which has allocated €1bn to the energy transition over the next few years.
Dutch pension asset manager PGGM has bought a 49% stake in Carbon Collectors, a Netherlands-based company active in the collection, transport and storage of carbon capture. PGGM said it had acquired the stake on behalf of Pension Fund Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW). No financial details were disclosed.
As part of the deal, PGGM said it had also acquired the exclusive right to make an equity investment of up to €200 million, to be used for infrastructure projects to “collect, transport and inject CO2 into suitable permanent geological storage sites, such as depleted offshore gas fields”.
PGGM said it made the investment as part of a special climate and energy transition mandate, set up by PFWZ last year, under which €1bn will be allocated to start-ups that generate value both in financial and climate terms.
The Carbon Collectors deal, which is the fourth under this mandate, “fits perfectly in this strategy,” a PGGM spokesperson told Impact Investor. “These investments aim to have climate impact through removing carbon as part of contributing to a climate neutral world in 2050.”
Simon Nicolaas, investment director at PGGM Infrastructure, said: “We are looking for companies that are well-positioned in this respect and achieve the long-term returns we need to pay successive generations of workers in the health and social care sector a good pension.”
Captured carbon
PGGM administers and manages the pensions of 5.6 million participants with a background in the Dutch health and social care sector. It managed assets worth€261bn for different pension funds as of the end of last year, the vast majority for PFZW with assets under management of €258.6bn at year end 2024.
Carbon Collectors is targeting companies in sectors that are particularly difficult to decarbonise because of their high energy consumption. These include the steel and cement industries, waste treatment, recycling and pulp & paper industries.
The company, which is based in Groningen, in the north of Netherlands, is aiming to put the first captured CO2 from industrial locations via specially designed vessels into permanent offshore storage before 2030. It expects that this will grow to around 6 million tonnes per year.
The European Commission aims to capture and store 50 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, which is forecast to jump more than fivefold by 2040.
Carbon Collector’s transport and storage technology will help businesses to slash their CO2 emissions in a responsible way, according to its CEO Ludo van Hijfte.
“With PFZW’s financial support and Carbon Collectors’ expertise, the first projects can be operational within three years of an investment decision,” Van Hijfte said.
