BBVA, a Spanish multinational financial services company and KKR, a global investment firm have formed a new strategic partnership to support the decarbonization of the real economy. As part of the strategic partnership, BBVA has committed $200 million (€187 million) to KKR’s Global Climate strategy, which invests in solutions at scale to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Both companies made the announcement during Climate Week, which is being held in New York this week.
The strategic partnership will also seek to uncover new climate infrastructure-related investments, including opportunities that support the energy transition and electrification. Further, the strategic partnership will support the respective firm’s complementary strengths, knowledge sharing and shared goals of advancing and accelerating the energy transition.
BBVA aims to support and help its customers move toward a more sustainable world. To this end, it has made sustainability one of its six strategic priorities, placing it at the core of its business.
The bank has identified decarbonization and clean technologies as key investment areas. Consequently, it established a global financing unit specializing in cleantech innovation. This team, based in New York, London, Madrid, and Houston, provides financing and advisory services.
On September 12th, as part of its aim to lead the financing of the energy transition in the United States, BBVA announced the creation of a sustainability hub in Houston.
With over 15 years of experience in infrastructure investing, KKR has deep expertise in renewable energy and climate-related investments and has invested more than $21 billion in this sector from its infrastructure platform alone. To date, KKR has made three investments from its climate strategy. In September 2023, KKR invested in Zenobē, a UK-based market leader in transport electrification and battery storage solutions, and in March 2024, KKR invested in Avantus, a premier US developer of large utility-scale solar and solar-plus-storage projects. Most recently, KKR invested in Ignis, a leading integrated global renewable group based in Spain, to develop primarily green hydrogen and ammonia projects for industrial applications in hard-to-abate sectors.
“We are confident that the second part of this decade will see strong growth of new low-carbon infrastructures. It is an immense opportunity. Our goal is to become a leader in deploying advisory and financing to support our clients in US and Europe sectors like Energy, Construction, Mobility and others in building the infrastructures of the future. This ambitious strategic partnership with KKR will be a key piece of our sustainability strategy. Teams from both groups will work together to take advantage of this opportunity of growth for our businesses,” said the Global Head of Sustainability and CIB at BBVA, Javier Rodríguez Soler.
“To address the major decarbonization projects that the world needs, leading global investors and financial institutions must play a key role. Large asset managers and international banks are necessary to finance this transition and support all sectors on their respective decarbonization paths in an orderly manner. With KKR’s proven experience in this area, we will share knowledge across our teams, capabilities and efforts in this strategic alliance in order to multiply investments in infrastructure and climate projects,” said Javier Rodríguez Soler.
“We are still in the early innings of what will be a multi-decade transition to net zero, which is one of the biggest investment opportunities of our time and requires participation from across the financial sector. We are delighted to collaborate with BBVA given their industry-leading presence within the renewables sector and their deep commitment to mitigating the impacts of climate change,” said Emmanuel Lagarrigue and Charlie Gailliot, Co-Heads of KKR’s Global Climate Strategy.
