Clean Invest Africa [AQSE:CIA] is one of over-thirty investment companies listed on the Aquis Stock Exchange. Clean Invest Africa – as it says in the name – invests in clean investment or renewable energy opportunities in Africa.
The fund listed on Aquis on November 2017, so will soon be celebrating its seventh anniversary and is focused on delivering an attractive return through acquiring stakes in clean energy companies, remediation and restoration technologies, waste-to-energy technologies and other clean energy related projects.
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It is a multinational operation, with Shaikh Mohamed Abdulla Khalifa Al-Khalifa, a member of the Bahraini royal family as non-executive chairman. Filippo Fantechi is CEO, and also based in Bahrain. Clean Invest Africa is the holding company of the group’s operations which includes Coal Agglomeration South Africa Pty Ltd in South Africa, which owns distribution company Chisa’Mina and Coal Tech Ltd, the UK-based holding company, which manages Coal Tech Mindesa of Colombia, Coal Tech Poland and Coal Tech LLC of Delaware, US.
Africa is a great investment opportunity
The fund targets smaller and more complex renewable energy opportunities in the continent, and sees Africa as a great investment opportunity being the second most populous continent in the world, yet still having two-thirds of the population with no access to electricity. In Europe and North America the electricity grid was built up over decades, slowly moving through legacy technologies starting with coal, moving through to natural gas and is just integrating renewable energy solutions, but trying to drive increased demand for electricity through older electricity transportation and distribution infrastructure. In Africa, the theory goes, the power industry can jump straight to renewables and install the most modern distribution technologies. Moreover, Africa has a surfeit of renewable energy sources, having lengthy hours of sunshine, long, powerful rivers and great wind and tidal prospects.
However, the issue with energy in Africa has always been a lack of capital, and Clean Invest Africa hopes that it can help mobilise public and private funds from Europe and the Middle East to build new renewable energy projects.
One of the primary projects Clean Invest has been involved with is Project Claps, a coal fines reprocessing project in Italy on the site of a steel plant through Coal Tech and in partnership with ISS International, an Italian engineering consultant. The project will turn coal dust and wastes into pellets.
In its results earlier this week (30th September), Clean Invest noted that Claps, which broke ground in August 2023, was now 60% complete and had earned the fund EUR120,000 (GBP100,000) in the first half of the year and should bring in another EUR300,000 in the next twelve months. The company is also making progress in South Africa with its subsidiary Coal Agglomeration South Africa which is about to go into full-scale production for distribution to retail under the trademark Chisa’Mina, with the hope of pushing production up to 4,000 tonnes-a-month. Coal Agglomeration is also experimenting with anthracite over coal.
In the US the company’s Delaware subsidiary is in negotiations with Environmental Energy Group (EEG) to recover coal tailings and coal waste submerged in tailings ponds across the US, with a heads of agreement with EEG to develop the Leatherwood Project in Kentucky. The Leatherwood Project consist of 12mT of recoverable coal from a 200 ft average depth. The plant will have an initial capacity of 10,000 to 15,000tpm which will be increased at later stage by an expansion of the initial plant of by adding another unit, possible of a larger capacity.
The company has also been building up its financial capacity, raising GBP450,000 in the period with another USD600,000 (GBP450,000) committed. The fund also restructured its debt, converting around GBP760,000 of debt into equity and issuing a convertible loan note to Contax Group, an Oil & Gas consultancy based in Dubai, of around GBP550,000. Clean Invest is also exploring issuing a Sukuk, or Shari’ah-compliant bond, which will be marketed in the MENA region and Europe.
Clean Invest Africa is optimistic about the future
Nevertheless in 1H24 the company made a loss after taxation of GBP232,907. The company is optimistic about its future, as it has a pipeline of projects, especially through its Coal Tech subsidiary. Fantechi said: “[we] are pleased with the progress made in this period and look forward with optimism, based upon the potential of an extensive and solid pipeline of opportunities. It is worth reiterating that the strategy of Coal Tech is to secure long-term, large-scale customer relationships with whom it would develop one or more full scale plants and with long term offtake arrangements.”
He concluded: “Securing one such customer would be transformative, with any such project likely to have a capital project value well in excess of USD10m and involve the processing of large scale fines deposit or tailings, typically over one million tonnes.”
The company’s shares opened the week at 0.045p, down 80% over one-year. The fund has a market capitalisation of GBP1.03m.
