One51 has €90m acquisition war chest as net debt drops to €7.4m

One51, the environmental services and investment holding group, has an acquisition war chest of €90 million at the ready should the right investment present itself.

Announcing its full-year results for last year, the company said it had refinanced all of its remaining borrowings under a new four-year facility to January 2019 with its banking syndicate.

The syndicate was expanded in September last year with the addition of HSBC resulting in the total committed bank facilities available to the group increasing to over €90 million.

The company is also in line for something of a windfall from the sale of NTR’s last remaining US windfarms as it holds a 23 per cent stake in the wind energy group.

NTR is expected to make up to €240 million available to shareholders following the sale of windfarms in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

One51’s latest set of results show it reduced its overall debt to €7.4 million last year - the lowest level in the group’s history - down from €40.3 million at the end of 2013.

2014 also marked the end of a two-year process of selling-off non-core assets, which saw the sale of Irish Pride Bakeries to WHW Bakeries and the sale of Greenore Port to the Burke Shipping group.

The company comprises two operating businesses focused on environmental services and plastics, and an investment holding arm .

Its results show revenue jumped 10.2 per cent to €276.5 million last year.

The company, which is headquartered in Dublin and operates in Ireland, UK and China, said its OnePlastics division performed better than expected while its environmental waste operation ClearCircle delivered a "solid performance".

Chief executive Alan Walsh said: "Our strategic goals remain clear; to grow OnePlastics and ClearCircle through both organic investment and acquisition where appropriate and to continue to manage our investment portfolio to realise further value."