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Bankinter Investment and Plenium Partners agree the first investment of the alternative investment vehicle Ecualia with REPETCO, a pioneering corporate in recycling multilayer PET plastics

Bankinter's Investment Banking subsidiary and Plenium Partners have reached an agreement with REPETCO to invest in a pioneering facility that recycles multilayer PET plastics, providing a solution to a previously unresolved problem through its proprietary clean, sustainable and profitable technology.

REPETCO will invest 55 million euros in its plant in Albacete that will come on stream at the end of the year, generating 200 direct and indirect jobs and with the capacity to recycle up to 100,000 tonnes of plastic per year.

Bankinter Investment and Plenium Partners are pressing forward with their latest alternative investment vehicle, Ecualia, focused on key sectors for national and European environmental goals and the circular economy. They have just reached an agreement to invest in REPETCO, a corporate that has developed a proprietary technology at its Albacete plant to provide a solution to a previously unresolved problem: recycling the multilayer PET (polyethene terephthalate) plastic present in post-consumer food packaging.

  This is a top-flight asset of the circular economy that will make a major contribution to the reuse of general-purpose plastics for food packaging. Multilayer PET is one of the most difficult materials to recycle and this type of packaging is therefore currently incinerated or buried. REPETCO has provided a pioneering solution through its proprietary clean, sustainable and profitable technology, which represents a revolution in the field of recycling and promotes the circular economy thanks to the recovery of raw materials and their reuse in the food industry and other sectors.

Ecualia's first investment is yet another example of the success of the strategy implemented in Bankinter Investment's alternative investment vehicles. Once again, it has entrusted the management to Plenium Partners, a team with enormous capacity and experience in identifying and executing acquisitions with high added value for investors.

 

A pioneering plant

 

The REPETCO plant in which Ecualia is investing is currently under construction at the Romica industrial estate in Albacete and is expected to be operational by the end of this year. It represents an investment of 55 million euros and will generate 50 direct jobs and up to 200 indirect ones. The new facility will have a maximum input capacity of 100,000 tonnes of plastic material per year.

 The plant design includes all the legally required environmental protection measures regarding discharges, emissions and waste management, as well as state-of-the-art technology for water treatment and the storage of raw materials to ensure full regulatory compliance.

The project for the facility recently won the 'SME for Innovation and Sustainability Prize' at the awards granted by the specialised publication on innovation, Retina, promoted by Grupo Prisa in collaboration with Capgemini. The award recognises the advantages provided by the technology developed by RepetCo, which avoids the use of chemicals, reduces emissions and favours the circular economy.

 

REPETCO, the sustainable solution for a pressing problem

 

Single-layer PET plastics, such as bottles, are less complex in terms of recycling, but the problem of multilayer PET plastics, with a significant presence in food packaging, remained to be solved. This represented a major problem in terms of pollution because it is estimated that over a million tonnes of this waste are buried or incinerated in Europe every year.

REPETCO has created a world-leading solution through the unique delamination of the plastic layers. This new technology means that every layer of plastic can be recycled to produce rPE/rPET pellets, which in turn favours subsequent reuse.

  

Recent launch of Ecualia

 

Bankinter Investment and Plenium Partners launched the new alternative investment vehicle Ecualia last week to offer the Bank's high-net-worth customers investments linked to sectors that will play a crucial role in implementing the long-term environmental roadmap, both at European and national level, as well as promoting the circular economy. The initial forecast is to raise nearly 175 million euros.

Ecualia is the vehicle that Bankinter Investment and Plenium Partners launched jointly last June. Distributed among Bankinter customers and managed by Plenium Partners, the fund is focused on investment in infrastructures and projects with an impact on the real economy and links with the main European environmental initiatives. The sectors included range from sustainable mobility and the circular economy to energy storage, energy efficiency and the production of sustainable fuels.

Ecualia is the 17th alternative investment vehicle launched by Bankinter Investment in its six-year history. The minimum investment required for institutional and private banking customers is 200,000 euros, in addition to the diversification criteria required to ensure that investors’ wealth is not excessively concentrated in a specific sector or type of asset.

 

Management by Plenium Partners

 

Ecualia will be managed by Plenium Partners, taking this company's total capital under management to 2 billion euros. Of this amount, 1.25 billion euros have been mobilised jointly with Bankinter over the last five years, focused on investment in renewable energies, student residences and sustainable projects and infrastructures. Plenium is currently in the process of identifying and analysing investment opportunities for its managed vehicles, offering investment structures that are adapted to the needs of each case. The agreement with RepetCo is a clear example of this approach.

 

Key bank in alternative investment

 

Alternative investment is a field in which Bankinter has become a leading player by offering an option to conservative investors that is unrelated to the performance of equities and fixed income.