Ancala’s Central and Eastern European EU Renewables Platform acquires new 5MW green energy plant

The platform comprises of two sites which generate renewable energy from forestry and agricultural biomass. The first investment was a 5MW biomass plant in Gospić, Croatia. This site was commissioned in 2021 and has long-term feed-in-tariffs and supply agreements in place. It features a wood drying facility which increases the efficiency of the plant.

The site acquired today, which comprises a green energy plant named Elektrana Grubišno Polje (EGP) and the adjacent drying facility named Sirocco, is located east of Zagreb. The site is a combined heat and power (CHP) system which also benefits from long-term feed in tariffs and supply agreements.

As part of the transaction, the existing management team, led by Laurent Sessa, will continue to operate the CHP plant. Ancala plans to support the management team to further grow the plant’s heat offtake and enhance its operations.

The transaction provides an exit for Akuo, an independent and global renewable energy producer with stakeholders in Croatia since 2013. Akuo will refocus on its core solar, wind and storage businesses.

Laurent Sessa, General Manager, EGP comments:

“We’re excited to join the Ancala portfolio and benefit from their experience within the biomass sector. The team’s proven track record for accelerating the expansion plans of companies like ours was really attractive and will enable us to grow the business and increase our heat capacity.

“Croatia’s 2030 National Energy and Climate Plan aims to produce 36.4% of its national energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030¹. We are looking forward to increasing our role in contributing towards this objective.”

Chris Lee-Evans, Vice President, Ancala adds:

“This acquisition doubles the capacity of our renewables platform in central Europe. The management team bring invaluable operational and market knowledge to support the future growth plans of the portfolio. We are looking forward to working with them to explore organic and acquisitive opportunities which further expand the portfolio across central and eastern Europe.”

Ancala has invested almost €1bn in critical infrastructure companies operating within energy transition and renewables. This transaction marks the 15^th bolt-on acquisition the infrastructure manager has enabled its portfolio firms to complete.

Financial details of the transaction are undisclosed.

Ancala was advised by Arcadis (technical), EY (financial and tax), Wolf Theiss and Jeantet (legal).

References

1 – According to the European Investment Bank: https://www.eib.org/en/stories/energy-croatia-greener-supply-zagreb