Wall Street interest in clean tech grows
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:32 AM ET May 4, 2007
(Corrects name of company being acquired by WorldWater.)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Attendance by fund managers, analysts and other Wall Streeters at the Jefferies CleanTech Conference has increased to more than 750, up from about 450 one year ago.
Vice Chairman Paul Deninger said fund managers are sifting through solar, wind and other alternative-power sectors to tap into concern about global warming as well as to deliver better returns for their clients.
"This is an extraordinary time," Deninger said in an interview with MarketWatch. "Clean-tech industry stocks were up more than 20% in the first quarter -- that's much better than the S&P 500."
Few if any Fortune 500 companies are pure-play clean-tech firms, he said. Rather, the sector is home to a number of small- and mid-cap players featured at the conference, including Renewable Energy Corp.,
1:03pm 05/04/2007
Jeff Lipton, managing director and head of North American CleanTech Investment Banking for Jefferies & Co., said the bank is exploring the possibility of launching exchange-traded funds that would track the clean tech industry.
Jefferies already measures the sector through a short series of clean-tech indexes.
Lipton said the investment bank hopes to build its base as a specialist in mid-cap firms with a focus on the clean-tech arena.
Lipton and Deninger said investors should consider investing in "baskets" of stocks to help protect against volatility by individual stocks.
Initial public offerings and other capital-creating transactions will be a priority for Jefferies in the space, he said. "There will also be several waves of consolidation in the space," he said. "Even without M&A, a lot of these companies need big chunks -- hundreds of millions -- in capital."
Quentin T. Kelly, chairman and chief executive of WorldWater & Solar Technologies (WWAT : worldwater & power corp com
said he changed the name of his firm this week by adding the word "solar" to its nameplate "because people didn't know we were in that business," he said.
Overall, the interest in clean tech is the hottest he's seen since moving into the business in 1984.
The company plans to close its acquisition of Entech Inc. by the end of the month, with plans to issue more stock and then possibly move his company's listing to the American Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq from the OTC bulletin board.
Steve Gelsi is a reporter for MarketWatch in New |
