Advanced Plasma’s Trash-to-Power Plans in U.K. Need $618 Million
By Louise Downing – Jan 19, 2012 8:30 PM GMT+0800
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Advanced Plasma Power Ltd., a developer of waste-to-energy technology, is
talking to as many as 15 investors to raise as much as 400 million pounds
($618 million) for projects that turn trash into power.
The London-based company is speaking to private equity investors and
infrastructure funds in the U.K., U.S., Europe and the Middle East and
already has three “agreements in principle” in place, Rolf Stein, chief
executive officer of Advanced Plasma, said without elaborating in a phone
interview.
Advanced Plasma is working with “a number of the leading” U.K. waste
management companies he didn’t name to deliver as many as 10 projects that
use waste from British homes and businesses to generate electricity and
heat. The facilities are expected to have 160 megawatts of total capacity.
The U.K.’s goal is to get at least 15 percent of its energy from renewable
sources by 2020, a sevenfold jump from 2008. The Department of Energy &
Climate Change estimates as much as half the total figure may be generated
from biomass, which includes wood chips, municipal waste and straw.
“We are hoping to attract 50 percent senior debt into the projects at
financial close but this will be dependent on market conditions including
Basel III constraints at the time of each close,” Stein said of the
capital-adequacy rules.
“The Green Investment Bank could certainly have an important role to play
here,” he said of the bank that will fund clean-energy projects, helping
spur investment in the industry, and move the U.K. toward a lower-carbon
economy.
Green Bank Pledge
Britain has pledged to put 3 billion pounds into the Green Bank that could
leverage a further 15 billion pounds of private investment. The bank’s
priorities through 2016 will include commercial and industrial waste
processing, recycling and energy generated from waste. The bank needs
European Commission approval before it can start, and should have full
borrowing powers from 2015.
Financial closure for the first of Advanced Plasma’s projects is expected at
the end of this year, and on all 10 facilities in two to three years, the
executive said. The equity requirement for the projects could be less than
400 million pounds should earlier facilities be refinanced and later
projects have a higher level of debt, he said.
The technology developer might consider an initial public offering next
year, Stein also said. “Whilst I can’t speak for all shareholders, for the
majority an initial public offering is unlikely to be an exit strategy at
this time and we probably wouldn’t look to raise much money from it.”
A share sale would instead provide the company with liquidity to structure
some “interesting” deals and perhaps some development capital. Advanced
Plasma in May joined with Group Machiels to build a project at a landfill
site in Belgium that will dig up underground trash and turn it into power.
The company isn’t looking to pursue similar facilities in the U.K. as
there’s “ample need” to first address the issue of diverting residual waste
from landfill, Stein said.
“We do see landfill mining as an important part of the energy and resource
landscape of the future however,” he said.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Louise Downing in London
at Ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg in London at
landberg@bloomberg.net