New Earth Solutions, a UK recycling and waste management company, has received a further GBP4m equity investment from Impax Asset Management, a specialist environmental investment compa
New Earth Solutions, a UK recycling and waste management company, has received a further GBP4m equity investment from Impax Asset Management, a specialist environmental investment company.
The investment will help fund the roll-out of NES waste management facilities across the UK.
It comes as the company has been granted planning permission to build a new plant in Avonmouth, Bristol, and is due to begin construction of a new plant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
The investment will also support the launch and development of New Earth Energy, a sister company to NES with common shareholders and management teams.
The GBP4m investment follows an earlier GBP4m injection made by Impax in New Earth Solutions in December 2007. Impax now holds a 16.3 per cent stake in NES.
Peter Gillatt, New Earth Solutions managing director, says: "At a time when other cleantech companies are struggling to finance their growth I am delighted to announce this follow-on investment from the UK’s most experienced environmental investor. These funds will help us accelerate our development and also take advantage of new opportunities in the waste to energy sector, where the synergies with our established waste treatment business are increasingly compelling."
In 2007 New Earth Solutions secured a GBP50m debt finance package from Norddeutsche Landesbank. In addition, in July 2008, the company launched the New Earth Solutions Recycling Facilities Investment Sub-Fund in conjunction with the Premier Group, the Isle of Man based investment fund provider. To date the fund has raised over GBP7m from UK retail investors.
New Earth Solutions currently has two 50,000 tonne waste facilities operating in Dorset and Kent. The business is supported by waste management contracts with the councils of Bournemouth, Bristol, Kent, Dorset and Leicestershire. Current private sector clients include MacDonald’s and Asda.
Impax has made the investment on behalf of two of its funds, Impax Environmental Markets, the only pure-play environmental investment trust in the FTSE All Share index, and Impax Environmental Markets (Ireland), its open ended Irish fund. The two funds combined have assets under management of over GBP450m.
Jonathan Fogg, investment director at Impax, says: "We’re delighted to be making a follow on investment into New Earth Solutions. The company has an excellent senior management team, is well-financed, is making good progress and is strongly underpinned by regulation at an EU and UK level. The launch of New Earth Energy and its north-west partnership with Biossence places the company right in the heart of the fast growth UK waste to energy sector."
