A SCOTTISH “smart meter” company has bought a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom in a £13.5 million deal that analysts have claimed is “transformational”.
Energy Assets will acquire the Manchester-based Gazprom Global Energy Solutions (GGES), a division of the Russian state-controlled firm that has developed an automated meter reading (AMR) service for both energy and water use.
As a result of the deal, the Livingston-based company will become Gazprom’s energy meter manager in the UK on an exclusive basis for five years and has doubled the number of meters it runs and services.
Energy Assets manages a portfolio of around 53,000 meters in the industrial and commercial (I&C) sector. The deal will “further cement” its position as the largest independent provider of metering services to the UK I&C market, it said.
In addition, Energy Assets will provide AMR and sitework services to Gazprom in the UK on an exclusive three-year basis.
The deal involves a £6m up-front payment with £3m to be paid depending on how many data loggers it installs in the next three years. It has also taken on £4.5m of debt which it said will be refinanced on the completion of the deal.
The company funded the acquisition with the £11.7m it raised on its stock market debut in March. Shares rose 5p to 188p.
Phil Bellamy-Lee, chief executive of Energy Assets, said: “This transaction provides Energy Assets with a fantastic opportunity to continue the development of the long-standing relationship between the two companies and is a significant step in the delivery of Energy Assets’ strategy to increase meter asset management and ownership as set out at the time of the IPO.”
Gazprom Marketing & Trading, which trades as Gazprom Energy, began selling gas to UK commercial and industrial consumers in 2006 with the acquisition of the supply business of Cheshire-based distribution company Pennine Natural Gas. Trade magazine Power in Europe estimates the company has since grown its portfolio to more than 8,000 customers in the UK and sells gas and power directly to approximately 38,000 industrial and commercial sites in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Bellamy-Lee said Energy Assets will focus solely on the UK market at present.
Gazprom and another firm, Corona, with which Energy Assets also has a tie-up, are the fastest-growing I&C gas suppliers in the UK, according to Datamonitor.
Vitaly Vasiliev, chief executive of Gazprom Marketing & Trading said: “We have worked with Energy Assets for some years. We know from experience that Energy Assets offers our customers great service and will continue to do so. This deal offers those customers an ongoing commitment to excellence.”
