Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) and Hermes have acquired Zouk Capital’s shareholding in Anesco, a UK-based energy efficiency solutions company.
Zouk Capital, the private equity and infrastructure fund manager specialising in the clean economy, was a founding shareholder in Anesco in 2010 and has made a significant contribution to the growth of the company. The transaction was led by SEP.
Anesco was recently announced as national winner of the BVCA Management Team of the Year Award. The Reading-based company had turnover of GBP55.1m and a profit of GBP3.4m before tax.
With the ongoing support of SEP and Hermes, Anesco now expects to quickly reach its target of over GBP100m revenue as demand for its services continues to grow. Anesco is experiencing significant growth for its broad range of products and services which address opportunities in the Green Deal, ECO, ESCO and RHI markets.
Anesco already forms part of the portfolio of the Environmental Energies Fund (EEF), managed by SEP, and this share purchase will increase SEP’s stake in the company. David Sneddon of SEP will join the Anesco board as a non-executive director.
Adrian Pike, chief executive of Anesco, says: “We have enjoyed our relationship with Zouk for the past two and a half years. We are delighted to have the support of SEP and Hermes to further our growth and diversification in the energy efficiency market.”
David Sneddon, partner at SEP, says: “Anesco is an award winning and visionary technology led company with its sights set on significant growth. We are delighted to increase SEP’s support for the Anesco team as they drive the company to achieve its long term goals.”
Samer Salty, chief executive of Zouk, says: “As a founding shareholder, we are extremely pleased to have been involved with Anesco since its formation. We backed an exceptional management team which has outperformed our expectations of what could be achieved in the emerging UK energy efficiency market. As the first exit for Zouk’s second Growth Capital fund, Anesco sets a benchmark for the returns that we target across the portfolio.”
