Viotas in management buyout of Bord na Móna stake

Managers at electricity trader Viotas have bought the 50 per cent of the company they do not own from State company, Bord na Móna with the backing of Goodbody Stockbrokers and AIB.

Limerick-based Viotas uses smart technology to help large energy users manage electricity consumption and their own on-site generators so they can sell excess power to the national grid.

Founders Paddy Finn and Duncan O’Toole have bought Bord na Móna’s 50 per cent state in the company in a deal backed by Goodbody Capital Partners and AIB.

The State company will earn a “significant return” on its 2016 investment in Viotas, although a statement from the pair does not give any details.

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Bord na Móna backed Viotas in 2016 as it sought to move out of managing and developing the State’s peat lands and into the broader energy industry.

Viotas maintains that it is the Irish market leader in using smart electricity grid technology to aid customers in managing consumption and generation.

The company employs 110 people and has expanded into Australia, Poland and the United States.

Goodbody invested in the deal on AIB’s behalf and the pair are providing extra capital to aid Viotas’s growth plans.

Tom Donnellan, chief executive, Bord na Móna, said Viotas had gone from “strength to strength” to become a leading player in its business.

Paddy Finn, chief executive of Viotas, said AIB’s support would underpin the company’s ability to deliver at international level.

Finlay McFadyen, head of Goodbody Capital Partners, noted that the investment was consistent with the firm’s ambition to back growth companies.