Hudson Capital nears $1B target for cleantech fund

Hudson Capital Management’s renewable energy fund is almost fully charged.

The Teaneck, N.J.-based firm has raised more than $800 million in commitments from limited partners for Hudson Clean Energy Partners and its affiliated offshore and parallel investment vehicles, as the firm edges closer to its aggregate $1 billion target, according to a source close to the situation.

Hudson Capital also has a meaningful cache of expected commitments lined up that is expected to nudge it even closer to its fund-raising goal, the source added.

The hard cap for Hudson Clean Energy Partners and it affiliated parallel and offshore funds is $3 billion, the source said.

C.P. Eaton Partners and Credit Suisse Securities are serving as placement agents for the fund, which has a $5 million minimum investment limit that can be waived at the general partner’s discretion, according to a regulatory filing.

Hudson Capital was founded by Managing Partner Neil Auerbach in 2006. Prior to launching the new firm, Auerbach was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he co-founded the financial giant’s U.S. alternative energy investment business.With the new fund, Hudson Capital wants to take advantage of the movement away from fossil fuels toward clean energy that has emerged as a result of environmental and political issues surrounding traditional energy generation. The firm’s thesis is that capital requirements for the emerging clean energy industry have opened doors to significant investment opportunities for both control and minority private equity plays.

Although Hudson Capital will generally seek control-stake transactions, it is also willing to take part in minority-stake and venture capital plays in the relatively nascent clean energy industry. The firm invests in the United States and Europe, where it has a London-based office.

Hudson Clean Energy Partners is already steward to five portfolio companies, each of which was acquired in 2008. Two of the investments are low-cost solar cell companies CaliSolar and SoloPower Inc.

Other portfolio companies include Element Power, a London-based wind and solar power producer; Recurrent Energy, a developer and owner of solar photovoltaic projects; and Wind to Power Systems, a Madrid-based maker of devices that allow wind turbines to maintain their connections to power grids. —Ari Nathanson