Foresight Group is eyeing more potential investments in the Republic as it continues to expand its private equity and energy divisions here, its executives have confirmed.
The UK-based business’s infrastructure arm is a backer of the Silvermines energy storage project in Co Tipperary and the MaresConnect interconnector, an electricity line linking Ireland and Britain.
Its private equity division is a partner in the AIB Foresight SME Impact Fund, which has invested €25 million of a €68 million total in five companies, the latest of which was quality assurance software specialist Scorebuddy.
Barclay Clibborn, Foresight’s principal in Ireland, confirmed that the fund hopes to add to its existing investments in 2025.
“We’re definitely across a couple of really exciting opportunities that should hopefully gain traction early in the new year,” he said.
He added that the fund had completed three deals in the last four or five months, making this “quite a good year” in terms of the rate at which it has deployed its cash.
The venture, a partnership with AIB and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, focuses on established small and medium-sized businesses that generate cash and are seeking to expand. According to Mr Clibborn, it will also provide replacement cash on succession, and will consider combining this with fresh capital.
It is “sector agnostic” according to Mr Clibborn, so takes a flexible approach as long as the companies meet its basic criteria.
In October, it invested in Cookstown, Co Tyrone-based water and power engineering specialist TES Group, while in July it took a stake in distributor DPP Medical.
The fund will place at least a further €25 million of the remaining cash, holding the balance back in case there is a need for follow-on investments.
Richard Thompson, partner at Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners, noted that MaresConnect recently won a key approval from UK regulator Ofgem. The €600 million to €700 million power line will be capable of transmitting 750 megawatts of electricity between the two countries.
It is a European Union project of common interest, which qualifies it for support from Brussels. Its other backer is a fund managed by specialist investment adviser Etchea Energy.
According to Mr Thompson, Foresight focuses on areas that facilitate the shift to renewables, such as storage and interconnection, which many countries lack.
Its other investment, the Silvermines hydro storage project in Co Tipperary, which is likely to need up to €1 billion in finance, will take cheap excess renewable electricity at times of low demand and use it to pump water to a reservoir, from where it will be released to generate electricity at peak times.
Both projects are funded by a combination of investors’ cash and debt. Mr Thompson says Foresight Infrastructure will continue to seek other opportunities here. Ireland is, he says, “certainly up there in the more attractive countries that we can invest into right now”.
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