NEW YORK and LONDON, Sept. 7,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tiger Infrastructure Partners today
announced the sale of its interest in London-based portfolio company Zenobē to KKR,
a leading global investment firm, and Infracapital, the
infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc and a current
investor in Zenobē. The transaction marks Tiger's successful exit
from an investment that exemplified its innovative,
transformational growth capital strategies for middle-market
infrastructure. Tiger supported Zenobē's dynamic rise from early
concept to global leadership in grid-scale battery storage and
fleet electrification.
KKR and Infracapital have formed a strategic partnership to
support the growth of the company and will invest approximately
GBP 600 million and GBP 270 million, respectively, in this
transaction.
Founded in 2017 by Nicholas
Beatty, James Basden and
Steven Meersman, Zenobē is a global
player in electrification solutions for fleets and battery storage
solutions for grid network infrastructure, with market leading
positions in the UK, Australia and
New Zealand, and a growing
presence in continental Europe as
well as North America. From
Zenobē's inception in 2017, Tiger became its first institutional
investor, building on initial capital from private sources and
providing hands-on expertise to position the company's platform to
become "core infrastructure of tomorrow". Tiger worked closely with
Zenobē's founders to expand its UK-based grid-scale battery storage
business and to use its battery management expertise to help bus
and increasingly HGV operating companies in the UK and globally
with a range of turnkey solutions to decarbonize their fleets and
meet emission-reduction objectives.
Tiger later brought in additional sophisticated institutional
investors including Infracapital and JERA Co. Inc., a leading
Japanese utility. By supporting the development of a
blue-chip investor base and the creation of an infrastructure
business model supported by Zenobē's assets and long-term
contracts, Tiger helped position the company to also attract over
£1bn of debt financing from banks and other institutional lenders
since its foundation.
Tiger CEO Emil W. Henry, Jr.
stated: "This major investment in the next stage of Zenobē's
growth, by one of the leading names in infrastructure private
equity, culminates a journey of first-mover leadership by the
company's founders and Tiger. Zenobē's visionary management
catapulted the company to the forefront of the energy transition
worldwide by creating the first global, grid-scale battery energy
storage company, and first to provide a full EV fleet
solution."
Continued Henry, "Tiger's thesis-driven strategy gave us
early-look insights into tailwinds driving the need for
then-nascent battery storage as a critical element of
decarbonization. We were privileged to help this superior
management catalyze Zenobē's growth by applying timely expansion
capital and hands-on strategic and operating expertise while
leveraging our unique transatlantic footprint to facilitate
Zenobē's entry into the US market as energy storage and fleet
electrification takes off."
Nicholas Beatty, Co-Founder and
Director, Zenobē said, "With the committed support of our initial
investors, Zenobē has evolved from a start-up idea of its founders
to a highly valued innovator in the new core energy infrastructure.
Tiger's early belief in the Zenobē founders' vision provided the
critical first institutional capital and expertise to help grow
those ideas into the Company's global leadership in grid-scale
battery storage and fleet electrification. That has enabled the
business to accelerate the electrification of bus and now
commercial vehicle fleets in partnership with leading operators and
support the connection of further battery storage assets to deploy
more renewable energy in the UK and globally.
Added Beatty, "Now, we will partner with, and benefit from, an
extensive new round of investments from KKR and Infracapital to
capitalize on the ever-increasing demand for our services. In this
next phase of development for Zenobē and the industry, we'll seize
on the competitive advantage of the technology we have developed
internally and with our suppliers as well as the synergies between
our battery storage and fleet electrification businesses and our
presence in multiple fast-growth markets as we expand beyond the
UK, Australia, New Zealand into Continental Europe and the
US."
Since Tiger's initial investment, Zenobē's battery storage
capacity has grown from 14MW to 430MW in operation or under
construction today with another 1.2GW of projects in advanced
development in the UK, and its fleet of electric buses, coaches and
trucks supported globally has grown from zero to more than 1,000
vehicles deployed in over 75 depots. The transaction is expected to
close in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is subject to customary
closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
About Zenobē
Zenobē is an EV fleet and grid-scale battery storage
specialist, headquartered in the UK. The company began operations
in 2017 with three founders and has over the past 6 years increased
its staff to >230 FTEs with a wide range of leading skills
including electrical engineering, software development, computer
sciences and financing. It now operates in Europe and Australasia and is expanding into
North America. Zenobē has
430MW of battery storage in operation or under construction with
another 1.2GW of projects in advanced development in the UK which
equates to circa 20% market share forecast by 2026. It has
around 25% market share of the UK EV bus sector and c.1000 electric
vehicles supported globally. The company is the largest owner and
operator of EV buses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Zenobē's services are supported by market leading financing
capability. This has included completing and drawing down against
the Fleet private placement in February
2022 which raised over £240 million long term debt for the
financing of Fleet customers, principally bus operators in the UK,
over up to 16 years. This also included the financing of grid-scale
batteries completed in February 2023
which raised £635m of debt including an accordion for the
development of Zenobe's grid-scale battery storage assets in
Scotland. For more information, please visit
www.zenobe.com/ or follow on LinkedIn.
About Tiger Infrastructure Partners
Tiger Infrastructure Partners is an innovative private equity
firm focused on providing transformational growth capital to middle
market infrastructure companies. Tiger's value-add approach targets
growth investments across the Digital Infrastructure, Energy
Transition and Transportation sectors in North America and Europe, where Tiger believes strong tailwinds
are driving demand for new infrastructure. Tiger maintains offices
in New York and London. For more information,
visit www.tigerinfrastructure.com.
About KKR
KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative
asset management as well as capital markets and insurance
solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by
following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing
world-class people and supporting growth in its portfolio companies
and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in
private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners
that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer
retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of
Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments
may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance
subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc.
(NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com
and on X (formerly Twitter) @KKR_Co.
About Infracapital
Infracapital invests in, builds and manages a diverse range of
essential infrastructure to meet the changing needs of society and
support long-term economic growth. We take an active role in all of
our investments, whether nascent or large, to fulfil their
potential and ensure they are adaptable and resilient. Our approach
creates value for our investors, as we target investments with the
scope for stable and sustainable growth. Our portfolio companies
work closely with the communities where they are based, to the
benefit of all stakeholders. Infracapital is well positioned to
deliver the significant investment required to help build the
future. The founder-led team of experienced specialists has worked
with more than 60 companies around Europe and has raised and managed over €7.8
billion of client capital across six funds. Infracapital is part
of M&G Plc, an international savings and investments business,
managing money for around 5 million retail customers and more than
800 institutional clients in 28 markets. Total assets under
management are £342 billion (as of 31
December 2022). https://www.infracapital.co.uk/
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