$34 Billion Asset Manager Plans to Hire in Singapore for Climate Finance

(Bloomberg) -- Mirova SA, which manages assets worth about €31.9 billion ($34 billion), plans to expand in Asia to tap the region’s growing pool of energy transition-related investments.

The Paris-based unit of Natixis Investment Managers is considering making hires in Singapore for its blended finance, green bonds and multi-thematic strategies that operate across public and private markets, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Abel said in an interview. 

Abel declined to offer specifics on the number of people to be added or a timeline for recruitment for Mirova’s only office in Asia. The plan is to also hire staff focused on client services, he said.

Mirova currently has 13 employees in Singapore, mostly focused on investment and research, and has grown from two people in the city-state in 2022. 

The Asia Pacific region, which accounts for more than half of the world’s carbon emissions, needs investment in energy transition technologies to triple to an annual $2.3 trillion through 2030 to be on track to achieve net zero by mid-century, BloombergNEF said in a report last month.

Companies from Japan to Australia are increasingly interested in areas including carbon credits and biodiversity, Abel said. “Asia will be more and more important for us as an asset manager focused on the energy transition.”

Mirova is preparing to invest in blended finance projects in India after experience with similar deals in Africa and Latin America, Abel said. The company aims to target sectors such as electric mobility and renewable energy, he said in the interview in Singapore last week.

“We will have a lot of limited partners that will be very interested that the investments that we are making are in India,” Abel said.

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