London based Whitehelm Capital, an independent infrastructure management firm, has completed the acquisition of 100% of the Sarpsborg Avfallsenergi AS waster to energy plant in Sarspborg, Norway, on behalf of Australian superannuation fund Prime Super.
The company was sold by Hafslund ASA, one of the largest regional multi-utilities in Norway.
Located in biorefiner Borregaard ASA’s industrial site in Sarpsborg, 90km south of Oslo and close to the border with Sweden, Whitehelm said that SAE is an ‘inside the fence’ waste to energy plant that was commissioned in March 2010.
The plant uses gasification technology developed by Energos. It has an installed capacity of 32.4 MW and processes around 80,000 tons of waste per year.
The facility is exclusively dedicated to the supply of baseload process steam to a number of bio-chemical process plants owned by Borregaard under a long-term offtake contract. Borregaard is said to be the world’s largest producer of lignin based biochemicals.
The agreed enterprise value for SAE was said to be around NOK 280 million ($33 million) on a debt- and cash-free basis, which is 9.2x reported EBITDA. The acquisition is 100% equity financed.
Whitehelm said that it sees significant growth potential for SAE, with opportunities to acquire additional upstream heat and energy recovery plants in the Nordics.
“The long-term contracted cashflows are a strong feature of this asset. While large trophy assets sold through competitive auctions are attracting very high prices,” commented Whitehelm’s chief investment officer, Graham Matthews.
“The mid-market continues to provide good investment opportunities for investors seeking stable returns from core infrastructure assets,” he concluded.
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