Press Releases

03 January 2008
EEA Group launches overseas ventures.

EEA Group (EEA), a specialist global investment management company, has established subsidiaries in the United States and Brazil to support its investment activities in North and South America.

Ricardo Nogueira heads up the new office based in Washington, DC that will advise on investments of Trading Emissions PLC (TEP) and Leaf Clean Energy Company (Leaf). Nogueira moved to the United States from London where he had for the last two years primarily focused on advising TEP, an investment company offering investors exposure to the carbon market through the acquisition of tradable environmental instruments.

Prior to joining EEA, Nogueira worked as a senior attorney with Washington, DC-based law firm Van Ness Feldman where his practice focused on climate change policy and transactions both under the Kyoto Protocol and in voluntary markets.

EEA has also announced the appointment of Joseph K. Fox and Yonatan Alemu to EEA’s carbon and clean energy team in Washington, DC. Fox and Alemu will focus their attention principally on Leaf, which listed on AIM in 2007 raising £200m and is advised by Energy & Climate Advisors a joint venture between EEA and the US based Shaw Group. In 2007, Leaf was the largest AIM raise in both the environmental and energy sectors. Leaf operates and manages clean energy companies and projects, including renewable energy projects and those that create environmental benefits through greenhouse gas emission reductions, primarily in North America.

Prior to joining EEA, Fox was an investment banker with Legg Mason and provided strategic financial advisory services to numerous middle-market growth companies. He has seven years transaction experience in mergers and acquisitions and in public and private debt and equity securities offerings.

Alemu was previously Vice President at Mercator Capital, a boutique merchant-banking firm, which provided strategic and investment banking advisory services to emerging growth and middle market companies in a wide range of industries.

Simon Shaw, Chairman of EEA, Investment Adviser to Trading Emissions and Leaf Clean Energy, commented:

“EEA has experienced significant growth since its launch four years ago, particularly in the carbon investment sector. The new office in Washington, DC will provide EEA with a solid platform to look after all of its investment projects in North and South America. We are very excited about the move and see it as a positive step forward for the company.”

The opening of the US office is just part of EEA’s wider plans for expansion as the company has made further appointments to its global team.

Simon Shaw added:

“EEA is also delighted to welcome Rodrigo Weiss, who joins the company as chief representative in our Rio de Janeiro office in Brazil. Rodrigo will act as an Investment Adviser and his role will be to originate TEP investments and support any existing projects in South America.”

Prior to joining EEA, Rodrigo was a regional manager with Factor Consulting + Management, responsible for origination and development of carbon assets and identification of opportunities for equity investment in Latin America. He developed a number of PDDs for CDM projects in Latin America, India and South Africa, and was a principal author of the baseline methodologies for bio-diesel approved by the Meth Panel.

EEA's carbon team not only advises TEP and Leaf but also manages carbon procurement accounts for a number of EU ETS participants. Such accounts include the provision of EU ETS trading services and the procurement of CERs.

For further information, please visit www.tradingemissionsplc.com.