OSLO, NORWAY: Antin Infrastructure Partners has acquired a majority stake in RAW Charging, a fast-growing charging company that installs and owns electric vehicle (EV) charging points at popular public destinations in the UK. The transaction is expected to close in early Q3 of 2022, a bourse filing said.

Following the recent acquisition of a co-controlling stake in Power Dot, a leading European owner-operator of EV charging infrastructure, RAW is the second EV charging investment as part of Antin’s NextGen platform, further demonstrating a strong commitment to transport decarbonisation.

Founded in 2018, RAW Charging has rapidly expanded by partnering with major real estate companies across the UK, including Aviva Investors, abrdn, Greene King and McArthurGlen, to roll out charging points. The network is targeting to have over 1,000 operational charging points by the end of 2022, with a pipeline of over 10,000 charging points to be installed over the next three years.

RAW’s management team will work closely with Antin to further expand its national footprint by scaling existing partnerships and further developing its pipeline. Through this ambitious growth plan, RAW is well positioned to help expand adoption of EV in the UK.

Transport is now the UK’s largest carbon emitting sector, with road transport representing over 90% of those emissions. In light of the UK’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, significant changes to the transport sector are underway, most notably with the UK’s ban on the sale of combustion-engine vehicles from 2030.

Supporting the development and roll out of EV charging infrastructure is critical to meeting this target as the UK government estimates up to 10 million battery-powered EVs on the road by the end of the decade.

To meet the significant demand for public chargers, RAW operates in the underserved, high-growth destination EV charging marketplace. With an estimated 45% of drivers needing to charge their EVs away from home, EV charging infrastructure is a valuable amenity in futureproofing work, leisure and domestic locations across the country.

Bruce Galliford, CEO of RAW stated: “Currently, destination EV charging is significantly underserved in the UK. Given Antin’s broad experience and its proven track record in growing and developing its portfolio companies, we are now positioned to implement a robust growth plan by scaling up our project pipeline and establish RAW as the go-to destination charging infrastructure supplier.”

Rodolphe Brumm, NextGen Partner at Antin commented: “This new investment signals Antin’s strong commitment to advancing the use of electric vehicles, thus contributing to reducing carbon emissions. We firmly believe that the private sector, alongside government, will play a key role in realising the UK’s ambitious electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, which includes the aim to reach 300,000 public EV charge points by 2030. We look forward to working with RAW’s management team to help transition the UK transport sector to low carbon by the decade’s end in line with our NextGen strategy.”

Goodwin Procter acted as legal advisor to Antin. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner acted as legal advisor to RAW and its current shareholders, with Longspur Capital acting as their financial advisor.