Green Investment Bank flotation could replace sell-off plan

According to reports, UK Business Secretary Greg Clark is expected to pull the plug on a proposal to sell the GIB to Macquarie, which was named as a preferred bidder in October sparking a heated debate over whether the state-backed environmental would be the subject of a brutal asset-stripping.

The privatisation could be even larger than the £3.3 billion stock market listing of Royal Mail in 2013.

The GIB was set up in 2012 by then business minister Sir Vince Cable with £3.8 billion of UK Government money and became the first investment bank in the world dedicated to “greening the economy”.

Chaired by Lord Smith of Kelvin, the it employs 125 people at its offices in Edinburgh and London.

Sir Vince has himself voiced his own concern that it would be taken apart following a sale to Macquarie.

Such fears have also been expressed by voices in both the House of Commons and Holyrood.

SNP spokesman for business, energy and industrial strategy, Callum McCaig MP, said: “It is vital that the UK Government provides greater transparency over its plans to privatise the Green Investment Bank.”

The GIB has £2.7 billion of investments in 80 projects including the Wick renewable energy plant and district heating network and a £5 million fund to back energy efficiency projects at Scottish whisky distilleries.

Former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne had initially revealed plans to sell GIB in an effort to reduce the UK deficit.