EQT to buy Statera Energy from InfraRed for £500m

EQT’s latest global infrastructure fund is acquiring UK-based battery storage and renewable energy developer Statera Energy from InfraRed Capital Partners.

The EQT Infrastructure VI fund has agreed to buy the company that develops, owns and operates flexible generation, battery storage, pumped hydro and green hydrogen projects in a deal IPE Real Assets understands to be worth around £500m (€578m).

Established in 2015, Statera has around 1GW of assets in operation or under construction and plans to deliver 7.5GW of flexibility assets by 2030 and has a total pipeline of over 16GW.

As part of the deal, EQT Infrastructure expects to commit to further investing in Statera’s ongoing development of battery storage and other flexible energy projects.

Back in July, IPE Real Assets reported that EQT had secured more than half of the €20bn it expects to raise for its latest global infrastructure fund, receiving €11bn in capital commitments as of its first close.

The fund manager said, with the Statera transaction, EQT Infrastructure VI is expected to be 20% to 25% invested based on the target fund size.

Francesco Starace, a partner within the EQT Infrastructure advisory team, said: “In a world increasingly reliant on intermittent renewables and striving to achieve net-zero emissions, battery storage and other flexible generation solutions are imperative.

“Both the public and private sectors must commit time, expertise and capital to innovative solutions that can expedite the energy transition. The partnership between EQT and Statera is an exciting step towards achieving this goal.”

Tom Vernon, Statera’s founder and CEO, said: “It is essential that flexible generation and energy storage technologies are deployed at scale to enable the vast amounts of renewables required to decarbonise power systems. Statera directly addresses this challenge by developing and operating projects which provide the resilience and flexibility required to balance the grid.”

Vernon said the transaction is a “significant milestone and the scale of EQT’s financial support and global footprint” means Statera is well positioned to deliver its pipeline of battery, pumped hydro and green hydrogen technologies.

Stephane Kofman, head of capital gain funds at InfraRed Capital Partners, said: “Throughout our ownership we have continued to support management in evolving and implementing the company strategy, growing the operational and development asset base, actively mitigating revenue volatility and helping to add key infrastructure capabilities across the organisation.”

To read the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.