DE-RISK: Canadian Pensions and SSE Sell UK Smart Meter Business to Equitix
Posted on 09/24/2020
Disclosed on September 23, 2020, funds managed by Equitix Investment Management Limited acquired a 100% interest in Maple TopCo Limited, the smart-metering business that has funded the installation of more than 1.6 million smart meters across the U.K. Closing of the transaction is expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The sellers are the founding shareholders of MapleCo: OMERS wholly owned subsidiary, Borealis Smart Holdings BV, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), and SSE plc. Each investor owned 33.3% of the shares in MapleCo. For March 31, 2019, Maple TopCo Limited generated £19.512 million in sales versus £8.018 million in sales for the March 2018 year. At March 31, 2019, MapleCo. had £173,898,000 in assets and £7,601,000 in net assets.
Advisors
The founding consortium was advised by DC Advisory and Allen & Overy LLP, Equitix was advised by Investec Bank Plc, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Ashurst LLP.
Origins
MapleCo was formed in March 2017 with around £8.262 million in equity and ranks as one of the U.K.’s largest Meter Asset Provider by contracted meters. MapleCo was formed at the same time SGN Smart was created. SGN Smart is a subsidiary of SGN Ltd, a U.K. gas distribution network company. SGN Smart provides management services and resources to MapleCo for implementation and its on-going operation. SGN stood for Scotia Gas Networks.
SGN is owned by SSE, Ontario Teachers’, OMERS, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
Keywords: Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.
