“By combining the Green Investment Bank with the largest infrastructure investor in the world, we will create a market-leading platform dedicated to investment in the low-carbon economy in the UK and beyond.”

The move has been welcomed by Scottish ministers, who had criticised the UK government’s decision to privatise the bank over concerns for the renewable energy industry. A consortium led by Macquarie, which also includes the bank’s European Infrastructure Fund 5 and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, a UK pension scheme for university professors, agreed to buy the GIB, established in 2012 by the coalition government to fund green infrastructure projects. Lord Smith of Kelvin, chairman of the GIB, said: “Macquarie has made significant and important commitments to the UK government to maintain GIB as a discrete entity within its business, maintaining GIB’s investment focus and approach with a target to invest more capital each year than GIB has historically.”

Lord Smith also added: “Macquarie will also uphold GIB’s green investment principles and report transparently on GIB’s green impact. The bank also manages the world’s first offshore wind fund, which is comprised private capital from a sovereign wealth fund, European institutional investors and a number of UK pension funds. There were no guarantees on GIB's headcount as part of the deal but Macquarie said it would continue to operate from offices in London and Edinburgh, managing more than 4 billion pounds of green infrastructure assets and projects.
The United Kingdom government agrees to sell the UK Green Investment Bank to a group led chiefly by Australian financial firm Macquarie Group for $3 billion, in a deal criticized as not securing the future of the bank.