(Sharecast News) - Smart Metering Systems announced two strategic investments on Tuesday, in a bid to accelerate its capabilities in electric vehicle (EV) charging assets, and further expand its offering in energy data management.
The AIM-traded firm said it had invested an initial £2m to acquire 25% of Clenergy EV, a software business with a charge point operator (CPO) platform focused on EV charging infrastructure.
It said Clenergy's customer base was in the public charging and fleet sectors, with its platform currently being used in more than 1,000 EV chargers across the UK.
SMS said it had the option to invest a further £2m after one year, leading to the acquisition of an additional 26% interest, and an option to acquire the remaining shares after five years.
"This investment complements SMS's existing EV installation capabilities, and will enable the group to deliver a fully end-to-end integrated platform for EV charging infrastructure - a model the group has successfully adopted for its meters, data and grid-scale battery assets," the board said in its statement.
The company said it had separately acquired 100% of data software company n3rgy for £1.4m in cash.
It said n3rgy's software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform "enables and facilitates" the use of energy consumption, generation and tariff data from smart meters registered on the Data Communications Company (DCC) platform.
The data is then used for settlement, billing, energy management and a "growing market" of wider applications and services.
Smart Metering said the acquisition, together with its "accredited and scalable" technology platforms, would "enhance and accelerate" SMS's capabilities in smart energy data solutions, providing it with a "strong competitive position" in the "significant addressable market" as the industry moves towards mandatory half-hourly settlement.
An additional £0.8m deferred consideration would be payable by SMS, subject to n3rgy achieving certain performance targets.
Finally, looking at its current trading, SMS said its smart meter installation run rate had continued to strengthen throughout the year to date, in line with its expectations.
Its first 50MW grid-scale battery project, meanwhile, was continuing to perform "strongly", and its additional 660MW pipeline was progressing in line with expectations.
"These two strategic investments are highly complementary to the existing SMS business and will significantly enhance our propositions in EV charging and energy data management, continuing the momentum in developing our CaRe products and services," said chief executive officer Tim Mortlock.
"Our investment in Clenergy EV will help to accelerate our advancement into the highly attractive EV charging market and the acquisition of n3rgy enables us to build on our strong existing position in energy data solutions."
Smart Metering Systems said it would update the market on its trading for the six months to 30 June on 27 July.
At 1144 BST, shares in Smart Metering Systems were up 1.58% at 836p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.
