LONDON: JLEN Environment, the listed environmental infrastructure fund, acquired 70% equity stake in Bio Collectors Holdings Limited. The acquisition was funded by a draw-down on JLEN’s revolving credit facility.

BCH, through its subsidiary companies holds the rights and operational assets that make up the anaerobic digestion (AD) plant and the Bio Collectors waste collections business.

The consideration is made up of an initial upfront payment, including working capital, and additional deferred amounts that are subject to certain conditions being met.

The group of companies is based in Merton, London. The AD plant was commissioned in December 2013 and has subsequently been expanded through several phases. The plant has a current thermal capacity of c.10MWth, a waste processing capacity of up to 100,000tpa and predominantly produces biomethane to be injected to the national gas grid. In addition, the plant has 1.7MWe of capacity through two CHP engines and is accredited under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) schemes.

The Bio Collectors waste collections business collects source-separated and packaged food waste for the AD plant from a variety of commercial, industrial and local authorities located in and around Greater London utilising an increasing biogas-powered fleet.

The 70% stake in BCH has been acquired from private individuals, with the residual 30% retained by the existing owner who will remain active in the business going forward.

This acquisition represents JLEN’s first acquisition into food waste fuelled anaerobic digestion, further diversifying the Company’s portfolio and increasing the total capacity of renewable energy assets in the JLEN investment portfolio to 297.9MW.

Richard Morse, Chairman of JLEN, said: “We are pleased with JLEN’s latest investment, which presents a diversification within the anaerobic digestion sector.  This acquisition of a food waste fed AD plant in London, bridges two sub sectors of JLEN’s existing portfolio, leveraging experience of the agricultural AD assets and the waste processing assets.

The production of biogas to inject into the national grid and also to power its own fleet of collection vehicles, underlines the importance that assets such as these play in the UK’s ambition to decarbonise its energy supply. We also value the opportunity to continue to work with the existing private shareholder to drive further value in the investment in future years.”