iCON Infrastructure Partners II acquires 50 % stake in Helius CoRDe Limited

Helius has completed the sale of its 50% interest in Helius CoRDe Limited to Leo Energy Limited, a company wholly owned by iCON Infrastructure Partners II, L.P.

The price agreed for the acquisition is £12.3 million (US$18 million) payable in cash, which equates to a multiple of c.15 times annualised profits for the CoRDe project plant based performance in the first quarter of the 2014/15 financial year.

Helius announced that the sale completed on 8 April 2015. The Board is exploring the best way to return available cash to shareholders as soon as reasonably practicable.

The CoRDe project, a biomass plant located in Scotland, is fully operational and exporting electricity to the grid. In the 2013/14 financial year Helius CoRDe generated revenues in excess of £13 million and continues to generate revenues in excess of £1 million per month. For the three month period to December 2014 Helius CoRDe generated revenues of £3.65 million and profit before tax of £0.41 million. On an annualised basis these results would deliver a profit before tax of £1.6 million for the year for the whole project.

The company originally invested £7.85 million in the CoRDe project on financial close in April 2011 and continues to hold 50% of the total issued share capital of Helius CoRDe.

We have recently reported about to similar transaction in UK:

• Copenhague Infrastructure Partners acquires UK biomass power project “Brite”. Transaction value US$226 million.
• Glennmont Partners’ fund acquires Margam Green Energy biomass plant. Transaction value US$243 million.