Pacifico buys and operates wind and solar farms across Europe.
Munich Rocket Internet founder Alexander Samwer is in the process of building a renewable energy company. The listed operator of wind and solar parks, Pacifico, plays a key role in the complex network of activities.
“Our aim must be to grow quickly,” Pacifico co-founder and co-CEO Martin Siddiqui told Handelsblatt. The aim is to create a German company that is one of the leading global players in the field of renewable energies. On the way there, Pacifico also wants to become more involved in the field of battery storage.
Pacifico buys and operates wind and solar farms across Europe. The company, founded by Siddiqui and co-CEO Christoph Strasser, went public in 2019 relatively shortly after it was founded. The majority owner with 63 percent is Pelion Green Future, a holding of the youngest Samwer brother, Alexander Samwer. For example, it is also the largest shareholder in the wind and solar park operator Clearvise.
Above it is the investment holding Arvantis, which Alexander Samwer founded with Jeremias Heinrich in 2018. These include venture capital firm Picus Capital, which has invested in dozens of startups such as Personio, but also in solar startup Enpal.
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The second pillar of Arvantis is Creanos, an investment holding company specializing in real estate. As the third segment, Pelion Green Future is to invest in sustainable companies in the areas of renewable energies, forestry and agriculture, among others. In addition, there is the non-profit organization Arvantis Social Foundation.
Separation of project development and operation
Pacifico should now be the nucleus for the field of renewable energies. The company relies on the so-called yield model, in which project development and operation are separated. Pacifio provides early support for the operator and takes over the parks when they are or are about to be operational.
The company works with the developer Pacifico Energy Partners from the group, but also with external providers such as the Wirth Group, Boom Power and ACE Power.
The focus is on projects with an output of five to 50 megawatts. Strasser said developers of small and medium-sized plants often had problems raising capital. In total, Pacifico currently has an output of 166 megawatts with wind and photovoltaic power plants in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. By 2023 it should be 400 megawatts.
Pacifico procured the necessary financial leeway for further expansion with 35 million euros via a green bond.
The founders see great potential for growth – especially now. “The energy transition can only work with many small solar and wind power plants spread across the country,” said Strasser.
Pacifico benefits from high electricity prices
Europe does not have huge free land areas. In addition, the power grids are currently becoming the bottleneck. This also speaks for increased decentralized production. Since electricity prices have also risen, but the costs in the field of renewable energies have fallen, smaller systems are increasingly paying off.
Pacifico was already benefiting from the high electricity prices in the first few months of this year. For the year as a whole, sales are expected to increase from 22 to 33 to 43 million euros.
Pacifico’s pipeline is well stocked. “We have projects with a total of more than three gigawatts in prospect,” says Strasser. If everything goes well, this means an investment volume of up to three billion euros – and possible three-digit million sales. “In the long term, there are no limits to our imagination,” Siddiqui answers when asked about billions in sales in the longer term.
Because Pacifico benefits from global trends. In view of the Ukraine war, Germany wants to become less dependent on Russian gas and expand renewables even faster.
A few weeks ago, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (both Green) presented key points for a faster expansion of wind power on land. Among other things, the species protection test is to be simplified. In the future, wind turbines should also be permitted in principle in landscape protection areas.
networks at the border
Last year there was a setback for the energy transition in Germany. With a share of a good 30 percent, coal replaced wind power as the most important source of electricity. Wind turbines contributed only 21.5 percent.
In the coming years, however, the proportion is likely to increase further. However, the networks are already reaching their limits, says Strasser. This is one of the reasons why there will be an increase in the need for electricity storage systems that absorb energy for a short period of time in order to relieve the grid at critical moments. “This is an important piece of the puzzle for the energy transition,” says Strasser, who used to work with Siddiqui in the renewable energy space at JP Morgan.
Currently, Pacifico sees itself as a growth stock, but in the longer term the stock should also become a dividend stock with stable earnings. So far, the story has only partially ignited on the stock exchange. Since the high of EUR 38 last summer, the price had fallen to EUR 26. Since the start of the Ukraine war, the rating has gone up.
More: Enpal becomes the first green unicorn in Germany.
