Eos Capital to buy solar and refrigeration company

PRIVATE equity fund manager Eos Capital (Pty) Ltd has entered an agreement to buy a solar and refrigeration company for an undisclosed amount.
The company to be acquired is Utility Energy Partners, which builds, operates and maintains solar and refrigeration assets in Namibia.

According to an announcement by Eos yesterday, this deal is still subject to Competition Commission approval and will be made through the Namibia Infrastructure Development and Investment Fund.

This fund is a N$535 million private equity fund and has been deployed in several assets in the country.

At the beginning of this year, Eos Capital also acquired a stake in Erongo Medical Group (EMG) which runs the Welwitschia Hospital at Walvis Bay, Erongo Radiology, Ongwediva Medipark and Medixx Occupational Health Services.

Though they might be considered as significantly important deals for the market – Eos is yet to make public the cost of the acquisitions.

This secrecy in prices has raised several speculations on whether Eos was paying premium or not, however, local equity analysts have said such deals are mainly shrouded in secrecy to avoid the targeting of the sellers.

According to the announcement, Henk van der Merwe, the chief executive officer of Utility Energy said they were excited to start the new journey in partnership with Eos Capital.

“Having a local, forward thinking shareholder with sufficient capital to grow this business will enable us to add more attractive Namibian assets to our portfolio, benefiting clients across the country,” he said.

Commenting on the deal, Eos lead associate on the deal Frederico van Wyk said Eos invested into the business it was found to have stable, consistent cash flows, which speaks directly to the mandate of the fund.

“The level of innovation Energy Partners has shown in the refrigeration industry is pioneering as they have optimised the use of cooling to be more energy efficient for Namibian businesses. We further saw good growth potential in both the solar and refrigeration industries which was validated by management’s existing project pipeline,” said van Wyk.

He added that Eos is excited to play a role in replacing high carbon grid energy with clean renewable energy through efficiently operating solar and refrigeration assets, respectively.

Utilities Energy was founded as Bokstone Solar in 2014 with the sole purpose of building an asset portfolio consisting of rooftop solar PV installations.

By 2017, the company managed to grow a portfolio of roughly 1,3 MW in a market that was relatively unfamiliar to rooftop solar technology.

In 2018, Utility Energy Partners South Africa expressed interest in the business and agreed to acquire a share in Bokstone and consolidate their assets into the newly founded EP Namibia. This transaction was completed in April 2020.

According to Eos, the company continues to expand its solar PV asset portfolio while adding refrigeration and now has a presence south of Mariental, the coast and the country’s north-eastern corner of Katima Mulilo.

Source: The Namibian