Calisen to be bought by consortium in £1.4bn deal
Updated : 08:20
Calisen said on Friday that it has agreed to be bought by a consortium of investors led by BlackRock Alternatives Management in a deal that values the smart meter company at £1.4bn.
Under the terms of the transaction, Calisen shareholders will receive 261p a share in cash for each of their shares. This represents a premium of around 26.3% to the closing price on Thursday and is 8.8% higher than the IPO price of 240p in February.
The consortium consists of Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund, acting by its investment manager BlackRock Alternatives Management, Nineteenth Investment Company - an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company - West Street International Infrastructure Partners and Broad Street Credit Holdings Europe.
The company said its directors intend to unanimously recommend the offer, "which provides Calisen shareholders with certainty and the opportunity to realise, in cash, the value of their holdings at a premium to the IPO price today, rather than waiting for completion of the roll-out programme".
While it believes it has a strong future as an independent listed company, Calisen said it reviewed the offer in light of a number of factors, such as the fact that despite its "operational and financial resilience and the positive strategic developments since the IPO", the shares continue to trade at a discount to the IPO price.
It also noted that since the IPO, the volume-weighted average share price has been 200p and has underperformed the FTSE 250 index by 8.3%.
It said: "The combination of share price underperformance, limited liquidity and overhang from the KKR Evergreen shareholding may constrain the opportunities for an orderly sell down of KKR Evergreen's shares over time; and Calisen's capacity to demonstrate the intrinsic value of the business through cash distributions to Calisen shareholders may only fully materialise towards the end of the investment cycle of the smart meter roll-out programme currently scheduled to run to 30 June 2025."
At 0820 GMT, the shares were up 25% at 258.60p.