TOKYO:  Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Company Limited (MUL) has announced its decision to participate in electricity distribution business in the UK by acquiring a stake in “Electricity North West Limited” (ENWL), an electricity distributor supplying the North West of England.

KDM Power Limited., a holding company jointly established by MUL, Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd. and Daiwa Energy Infrastructure Co., Ltd. and Equitix Ltd. acquired 50% of ENWL shares from institutional investors advised by First State Investments and J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

As a result, MUL holds 4.8% of ENWL’s equity interest.

ENWL, which is based in Warrington in the North West of England, owns and maintains a cable network of 57,000km in an area extending from urban Manchester to rural Cumbria, serving approximately five million customers across 2.4 million premises.

In the current Medium-Term Management Plan “Breakthrough for the Next Decade”, MUL has positioned social infrastructure as a priority focus industry and is actively promoting numerous initiatives both in Japan and overseas.

This is the first stake Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Company Limited (MUL) has taken in the field of overseas electricity distribution, expanding its target sector following a stake in undersea power transmission business for offshore wind power plants in Germany, a stake in onshore wind power plants in the Republic of Ireland, and a stake in an offshore windfarm project in the UK.

In the movement shifting to renewable energy resources, electricity distribution network is positioned as a fundamental infrastructure which takes important roles along with the development of new technology including effective utilization of dispersed power resources (decentralized power system, electricity storage system, EV, etc.) and sophistication of demand-supply adjustment function (AI, IoT, smart meter, etc.).

By participating in this business partnering with the prominent players in the industry, MUL aims to achieve further expansion of its business presence in the electric power sector and contribution to sustainable development of social infrastructure on a global scale.

Edited by Kazim Rizvi