Inflexion and Equistone complete investment in UK Power Reserve

Equistone Partners Europe ("Equistone") and Inflexion Private Equity ("Inflexion") announce that they have together invested in UK Power Reserve ("UKPR"), a leading developer, owner and operator of smart, flexible power generation assets in the UK.

UKPR was established in 2010 and has developed, built or acquired generation capacity to grow from a start-up to a substantial independent operator, generating reserve power in times of critical need via its 185MW portfolio. The company is led by an ambitious and highly experienced management team which has created a market leading business providing flexible solutions to balance system supply and demand. It is a UK operator with over 70 staff, generating power from 14 sites in England and Wales.

In December 2014, the company secured a significant number of 15 year Capacity Market (“CM”) generation contracts to nearly triple its existing capacity, which will bring its total portfolio to 533MW across 33 sites throughout England and Wales by 2018. Inflexion and Equistone will support the management team in optimising performance from existing operations and building new sites to achieve this growth.

John Hartz, Managing Partner at Inflexion, commented: “We are delighted to have invested in UK Power Reserve alongside Equistone. Tim Emrich and his team are pioneers in flexible power generation and we are pleased to be supporting them as they build further capacity to maximise UK Power Reserve’s growth opportunity in the UK energy market.”

Tim Emrich, CEO of UK Power Reserve, said: “Our new investors have demonstrated a clear understanding of the available opportunity to increase our share of the growing market for flexible power generation. We look forward to working with them as we substantially increase our capacity and our ability to provide mission critical services to the network and every user of electricity in the UK.”

Phil Griesbach, Partner at Equistone Partners Europe in Birmingham, added: “The ageing power generation infrastructure in the UK coupled with increased volatility from renewable energy sources means that the flexible generation offering of UKPR will become an area of growing importance. The entrepreneurialism shown by the management team in identifying this market need makes this an attractive investment proposition for us.”

The investment was led by Phil Griesbach, Sam Breuning and Paul Harper for Equistone and Malcolm Coffin and Richard Swann for Inflexion.

Equistone and Inflexion were advised by Poyry, EY, Eversheds and Marlborough Partners.

Financing facilities for the transaction were provided by HSBC and RBS.