Media Centre
31 May 2010
Q&A with a Venture Capitalist - LEND LEASE VENTURES
Q1. As a Venture Capital firm, what kind of companies do you look for?
Lend Lease’s venture capital arm invests in commercially viable growth companies operating in energy, water and building sectors. As one of Australia’s most active cleantech investors, with a current portfolio of six investments and a fund size of A$100 million, we typically seek to invest at the expansion capital stage where entities are seeking funds to commercialise proven products and services.
In any investment we make, we look to identify meaningful joint commercialisation opportunities which can be exploited post investment between the investee company and one or more of Lend Lease’s main lines of business. (Lend Lease is one of the world’s leading property companies – refer www.lendlease.com).
In adopting this approach we are able to bring expertise, client and customer relationships and an international network capable of accelerating value creation for our investees
Our preferred level of equity commitment (per investment) is between A$10 - A$15 million, which tends to mean that we are most interested in companies with an enterprise value of between A$30 million to A$80 million.
Q2. Do you have a specific niche or industry which interests you?
We have three key investment themes - Energy, Water and Building Technologies. Our existing portfolio consists of six companies and includes Daintree Networks (wireless lighting controls), Better Place Australia (electric vehicle infrastructure), Windlab (wind energy developer) and WJP Solutions (water treatment solutions).
Our A$100 million fund is just over half committed at present. For the balance of our portfolio we are particularly interested in companies which can provide compelling value propositions in energy efficiency.
Q3. What impact did the turbulent public markets of the past 2 years have on your ability to raise money for your VC fund?
We are a corporate venture capital fund and as such are not reliant on third party capital (although may consider accessing third party capital in the future).
Q4. What level of percentage returns have you been able to achieve through investing in private companies?
We target an IRR of 30%.
Q5. What tips do you have for investors seeking to invest into private companies?
As with most investments, quality of management and alignment of interests are key success factors. It is especially so with a private company because management quite often are also significant shareholders. You must treat the investment like a partnership with management and the quality of the management team will be perhaps the single most important determinant of success. For these reasons, quality of management is a critical investment filter for us.
Investors should be careful not to get overly swayed by trends. Private companies are by definition illiquid, so only invest in companies with favourable long term prospects that you’re prepared to hold onto for a long time. Be prepared for the worst case scenario. Private companies can’t be dumped in a bad market - you may need to invest more capital when other sources of capital run dry.
Determine the company’s intrinsic valuation ignoring parameters like previous rounds, the seller’s asking price or current share market valuations. Once you know what its worth to you, compare that to the price that the seller is willing to sell at.
Less is more - make fewer investments of higher quality.
Q6. What are the top 5 things you look for when seeking to invest in a company?
The top five things Lend Lease’s venture capital business looks for when seeking to invest in a company are:
1. Can the business generate venture capital style returns? (Minimum 30% IRR – higher depending on risk)
2. Quality of management team. (Need high degree of confidence in CEO)
3. Sustainable business model. (May be defendable IP, position in market place, high entry barriers etc)
4. Can we take a meaningful ownership stake? (Targeting 20% - 50% equity and board representation)
5. Is the technology proven? (Targeting expansion capital, so some level of commercial revenue)
Q7. What do you look at as an indicator for an ideal time to divest your share holding?
We expect to hold most of our investments for at least 3 – 5 years before exiting. If things have gone well, significant value will have been created in that time. It’s then a question of whether the then prevailing markets (public or private) are conducive to realising appropriate value.
Q8. What are you optimistic about?
I think there is unstoppable momentum around clean technology at the moment. Whilst there have been some regulatory setbacks in Australia (which I believe will ultimately just reflect a timing issue), the international push towards putting a price on carbon and stimulating investment in cleaner forms of energy and energy efficiency mandates is almost universal. Consumer and business community mindsets are generally incredibly supportive of the cleantech revolution and there is much more focus on commercially viable solutions in this space than ever before.
From an investment perspective, I believe that the private sector risk reward scenario attributable to investing in high quality companies innovating in this space is very positive. I also believe that we, Lend Lease Ventures, are in a strong position to deliver impressive investment returns and help keep the wider Lend Lease group at the leading edge of sustainability.
Q9. Where do you see the opportunities over the next few years?
At the moment, the most interesting opportunities for us are in the energy space. Clean and green forms of energy generation, energy efficiency and businesses that have a particular product, capability or offering that’s relevant to delivering low carbon outcomes and ‘green retro-fit’ solutions are of particular interest and offer great opportunity.
Anthony Pascoe
(B. Com, ACA , F Fin, GAICD)
CEO of Lend Lease Ventures
As CEO of Lend Lease’s venture capital business, Anthony leads Australia’s largest dedicated cleantech investor. Anthony is responsible for the business’ $100 million cleantech fund which invests in commercially viable growth companies operating in energy, water and building sectors.
