Singapore energy group plugs in to £340m deal
UK Power Reserve, the Solihull-based business which operates small-scale generators to produce low carbon electricity to support the UK’s power supply, has been bought by a Singapore energy group.
Sembcorp will pay £216m, although the deal has an enterprise value of £340m.
It provides an exit for Equistone Partners and Inflexion Private Equity, with both achieving an internal rate of return of more than 40%.
UK Power Reserve was founded in 2010 to meet growing domestic demand for highly flexible reserve power capacity. It now has 32 rapid-response power stations across England and Wales and has the capacity to provide power to 375,000 homes.
Since Inflexion and Equistone’s joint investment in the company in late 2015, UK Power Reserve has doubled its headcount to 150, more than trebled capacity to over 500MW and quadrupled revenues to more than £80m.
Under the ownership of Sembcorp, a further 480 MW in construction and development is expected to come online by 2019, including 120 MW of battery storage assets – one of the biggest such portfolios in Europe.
“UK Power Reserve has been a pioneer in the sector taking advantage of the rapidly changing market,” said Simon Turner, managing partner at Inflexion.
“Changing market dynamics posed an opportunity for the business to scale, and we were well placed to assist them with this.”
Phil Griesbach, partner at Equistone Partners Europe, added: “The highly impressive growth of the business under our ownership has been a clear validation of the faith we placed in CEO Tim Emrich and his outstanding team to successfully navigate this changing landscape.”
Emrich, who co-founded the business, will now leave the business with chief commercial officer Sam Wither becoming chief executive.
Equistone and Inflexion were advised by RBC (corporate finance) and Addleshaw Goddard (legal).
