(Bloomberg) — Wealthy Australians, in search of attractive investment returns, are emerging as an important pool of capital for financing coal projects shunned by banks due to environmental, social and governance concerns.
Income Asset Management Group Ltd. is one fund manager targeting the well-off in Australia to provide private loans to coal and other mining companies, offering investment returns of about of 12% to 13% per year.
“We can go into non-ESG deals as well like mining if a return on the credit works because our investors have appetite for good returns,” Varuna Gunatillake, director, debt capital markets at IAM said in an interview in Melbourne.
The firm has placed over A$500 million ($335 million) of loans in the last three years in coal and commodity-related infrastructure projects.
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