The movies always make people hope for the American dream, but for three Italians, who made South Africa home, the African dream was the ultimate aspiration.
South African Independent Power Producer, Red Rocket has an inspiring tale of success, and while much of it can be traced back to its beginnings as the African business unit of Italian company Building Energy, its heart and soul is very much proudly South African. This is thanks in part to Giacomo Brambilla, its Chief Financial Officer, whose innovative, resilient spirit has helped make the company what it is today.
Hearing Brambilla tell of Red Rocket’s rise, one can’t help but be in awe of the journey it took to get to this point. A 3.7GW portfolio of wind, solar, and hydro projects, a robust pipeline of projects in the works, and new state-of-the-art offices at the bustling Cape Town Cruise Terminal at the V&A Waterfront.
The secret? A winning mindset and trusted people who are willing to go the whole nine yards.
“It’s like The Lord of the Rings,” he jokingly said. But unlike the beloved book and movie series, the trials and plot twists were far from fictional, and the three-man fellowship consisting of his brother and Red Rocket Chief Executive Officer Matteo Brambilla, and Chief Operating Officer Luca Silva, defied expectations to steer Africa’s leading renewable energy company on the right path.
Sitting in his office filled with an eclectic selection of books, and blessed by refreshing sea views, Brambilla recalled his decision to move to South Africa as one driven by a sense of adventure, a key ingredient then lacking, while at Building Energy based in Milan, Italy.
“During that time, I was the head of finance, and after four years there, I began to get bored despite travelling a lot and getting involved in projects in the US, Serbia, and Panama. But there was no room for growth.”
South Africa, and more specifically Cape Town, not only offered that, but a sense of familiarity that his partner at the time, now wife, was happy to join him in. Eight years later, and a toddler and two energetic Ridgebacks in tow, Brambilla’s roots are firmly in the ground. The world of finance became an attractive choice early on for Brambilla, whose career started at Citi Bank during the subprime crisis of 2008. He dealt with the corporate facet of the main business of Building Energy, but the South African transition fuelled his passion as Head of Transactions.
“I liked it because it was more business-focused, and I wanted to get my hands dirty with projects. We had the largest projects, and project finance here was extremely sophisticated,” he said.
The company’s successful closing of its 10MW Ugandan project, Totoro Solar North in 2016, started a positive chain reaction, after which it was followed by other successes such as the 147MW Roggeveld Wind Farm, and then the 4MW Kruisvallei Hydro Plant in the Free State.
Fast-forward to 2019, times were changing and the trio identified an opportunity to buy out the African arm and create the Red Rocket we know today.
This was a tumultuous time marked by a lot of uncertainty and risk, but Brambilla credits the success of that exercise to a strong sense of survival and resilience that became the trio and other leaders’ only option.
The process was an emotional time for the brothers and Silva. Carrying them through, however, was a palpable sense of duty to the staff that had become family, and the home they had created in SA.
Going through a funding maze where millions were at stake, it was all or nothing.
“We started to look for different backers, and we were trying to be prepared to put an offer on the table. We took a leap of faith, but it was also survival. We didn’t have any other choice,” Brambilla said, adding that going all in was their only option.
When the deal was signed, the ship needed to continue its forward trajectory. Closing the company’s Bid Window 5 projects was a key turning point, and now with a staff of over 100 just at the mothership, the rest, as they say, is history.
“It is also inspiring that we’ve managed to do so much of that in such a short period of time.”
They say that the most successful business owners make their own destiny. For Brambilla, this is an epic adventure that he hopes will still be many more years in the writing as the Red Rocket journey continues.
“This task was assigned to you. And if you do not find a way, no one will,” said Galadriel in The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.