Biogas plant snapped up by infrastructure fund for £18m

Listed environmental infrastructure fund JLEN has acquired an anaerobic digestion (AD) asset, Merlin Renewables, for £18m.

The Merlin AD plant is located in Hibaldstow, North Lincolnshire and was commissioned in September 2014. The plant has a thermal capacity of c.5MWth and predominantly produces biomethane to be injected to the national gas grid. In addition, the plant also has a 0.5MWe CHP engine and is accredited under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) schemes.

The AD plant has been acquired from Venture Capital Funds managed by Downing LLP and minority shareholders. Future Biogas will continue to provide management, operations and maintenance services to the AD plants after the acquisition.

The acquisition builds on JLEN’s growing portfolio of four AD projects and brings the total capacity of the renewable energy assets in the JLEN investment portfolio to 274.2MW.

The acquisition was funded by a draw-down under the Company’s revolving credit facility.

Richard Morse, the JLEN Chairman, said: “This latest acquisition further underlines the commitment JLEN has to diversifying its portfolio and the value it places in the anaerobic digestion sector. We are pleased to see our partnership with Future Biogas continues to strengthen across a portfolio of four projects together.”

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