The T. Boone Pickens Energy Fund was created to provide investors with the opportunity for long-term capital growth by providing access to energy-related investment strategies, including in the renewable energy sector. The portfolio manager and its management team are led by Pickens, who brings 50 years of experience in the oil and gas industry to the evaluation of potential energy investments and energy sector themes.
Pickens founded Mesa Petroleum, which became one of the largest independent producers of natural gas and oil in the United States and Canada. He now pursues a wide range of business interests, including the promotion of wind power and his company Clean Energy Fuels, a transportation fuels company which went public in May 2007.
The Fund will invest the net proceeds of its offerings in a portfolio consisting of equities and commodity-related investments within the energy and energy-related sectors. Investments will include conventional energy investments but may also include investments in renewable energy and natural gas that are consistent with energy themes and policies espoused by Pickens, according to the prospectus.
Pickens intends to acquire, directly or indirectly, 10% of the units of the Fund, to a maximum of US$10 million under the offerings. He is also active in the management of a number of privately-offered investment funds that focus on investments in stocks of public companies in various energy sectors.
The offerings are being made through BMO Capital Markets and BMO Nesbitt Burns will act as administrator of the Fund. The offerings are expected to close in mid-December.
In July 2008, Pickens launched a grass-roots campaign to reduce US dependence on imported oil and he warns that dependence on foreign oil is an addiction that threatens the US economy, environment and national security, explains the prospectus. His 2008 bestselling novel, The First Billion is the Hardest, details his views on what the United States must do to win back its energy independence. Time magazine featured him in its 2009 list of the 100 most-influential people in the world.
Pickens is known as a philanthropist, giving away US$700m. Grants from the Pickens Foundation support educational programmes, medical research, athletics and corporate wellness, at-risk youths, the entrepreneurial process and conservation and wildlife initiatives.