Ancala acquires Akuo’s biomass CHP plant in Croatia

Infrastructure management company Ancala has acquired a 5 MW biomass facility in Croatia from renewable energy firm Akuo.

London-based Ancala is an independent infrastructure manager with a diverse EUR 4 billion portfolio of 18 investments in 15 countries. At the end of March, Akuo had a total capacity of 1.8 GW in operation or under construction and a project pipeline of over 20 GW.

Ancala said it added a 5 MW green energy plant to its Central and Eastern European EU Renewables Platform.

The platform comprises two facilities that generate renewable energy from forestry and agricultural biomass, according to the update.
The first investment was a 5 MW biomass plant in Gospić, Croatia. Commissioned in 2021, it has long-term feed-in-tariffs and supply agreements in place. The unit features a wood-drying facility which increases the efficiency of the plant.

Akuo will refocus on its core solar, wind and storage businesses

Ancala now acquired a green energy plant named Elektrana Grubišno Polje (EGP) and an adjacent drying facility named Sirocco, located east of Zagreb. It is a combined heat and power (CHP) system that also benefits from long-term feed-in tariffs and supply agreements.

The power plant has 5 MW in electricity generation capacity and 6.5 MW for heat energy.

As part of the transaction, the existing management team, led by Laurent Sessa, will continue to operate the CHP plant.

Financial details of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

According to Ancala, 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, Ancala said.

Of note, the French firm is developing a 400 MW photovoltaic plant in North Macedonia.

Ancala has invested almost EUR 1 billion in critical infrastructure companies

Laurent Sessa, EGP’s General Manager, said the proven track record of Ancala’s team for accelerating the expansion plans of companies like EGP would enable it to grow the business and increase its heat capacity.

The acquisition doubles the capacity of Ancala’s renewables platform in Central Europe, its Vice President Chris Lee-Evans noted.

“The management team brings 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,” Lee-Evans said.

Ancala has invested almost EUR 1 billion in critical infrastructure companies operating within energy transition and renewables. The latest transaction marks the 15th bolt-on acquisition the infrastructure manager has enabled its portfolio firms to complete, according to the update.

Ancala was advised by Arcadis, EY, Wolf Theiss and Jeantet.