06 October 2006

Viridian agrees to £1.6 billion takeover

Northern Ireland electricity supplier, Viridian has today confirmed that it has accepted a £1.6 billion private equity takeover from Bahrain-based company ElectricInvest.

ElectricInvest, which is part of private equity business Arcapita, has agreed to pay a total of 1336p per share of Viridian, which also owns Northern Ireland Electric (NIE), Energia and Powerteam.

NIE is the main supplier of power to homes in Northern Ireland, while Energia supplies businesses and also runs the Huntsdown power station near Dublin.

The buyers said that the deal represented an opportunity for them to achieve “stable returns” from Viridian's regulated and non-regulated electricity businesses, and Viridian added that the deal was both “fair and reasonable.”

Arcapita already has a stake in a number of utility businesses throughout the UK, including a joint venture with npower to operate 19 wind farms, and South Staffordshire - a water company serving 1.2 million people, which they acquired in 2004.

Last year, Viridian reported revenues of around £976.8 million, an increase from £835.4 million during the same period last year.

Today's announcement of the sale has sent shares in Viridian up by 9%.

(EF/KMcA)