LONDON (Alliance News) - One of Europe's largest private equity firms, Terra Firma, on Thursday said it has struck a deal to take over wind farm owner Infinis Energy PLC in an all cash deal that values the company at around GBP555.0 million.
Monterey Capital II Sarl, a subsidiary of Terra Firma, already holds a 68.5% stake in Infinis Energy and has made an offer of 185.0 pence per share to acquire the remaining stake it does not already own.
The offer represents a 40.0% premium to the Wednesday's closing price of 131.75 pence and a 38.0% premium to its average share price of 133.86p over the last month.
Infinis shares were up 39% to 183.25p per share on Thursday morning, very comfortably the best performer in the FTSE All-Share.
Infinis has deemed the offer "fair and reasonable" and the board has unanimously approved the offer, recommending shareholders to accept the deal. So far, it has received irrevocable undertakings for just over 1.0 million shares, representing around 0.33% of its share capital, which will be added to Monterey's existing stake.
"The transaction announced today is part of Terra Firma's strategy of monetising its investment in Infinis, a business that we have owned and invested in over more than a decade. We have considered gradual sell-downs of our interest in the company since its IPO in November 2013 and more recently we have also explored other strategic options, but the change in the regulatory environment for Infinis has prompted us to rethink our strategy," said Guy Hands, chairman of Terra Firma.
"We believe that this transaction offers Infinis' shareholders an attractive cash consideration for their shares in Infinis and allows Terra Firma to pursue alternative options to monetise its investment in Infinis once it is a private company," he added.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.