Drax takes stake in renewables firm Aggregated Micro Power
UK power company Drax is taking a 4.1% stake in renewables firm Aggregated Micro Power Holdings (AMPH), which delivers biomass-based energy projects and sells wood fuels. Drax had earlier sold AMPH to Billington Bioenergy. The deal is in line with Drax's aim to gain access to the small-scale distributed energy market and reinforces its strategy of serving small to medium-sized companies. Drax owns the Drax power station in Yorkshire, which used to be coal-fired but now is 70% biomass-fired.

Drax Group plc (LON:DRX) will take a stake in distributed energy firm Aggregated Micro Power Holdings (AMPH) after selling to it 100% in UK wood pellets supplier Billington Bioenergy (BBE).

AMPH will buy BBE from Drax for GBP 400,000 (USD 527,000/EUR 448,000) in cash and GBP 1.6 million in stock. It will issue a bit over 1.624 million shares to the UK energy group. After the transaction, its issued share capital will be 39.4 million, so Drax’s stake will be about 4.1%.

In a statement today, Drax said the deal is in line with its retail strategy, currently focused on the industrial and commercial and small medium enterprise (SME) energy markets. By taking an interest in AMPH, the company will gain access to the small-scale distributed energy market.

Drax is the operator of the Drax Power Station, originally a coal-fired power plant. Now it is 70% biomass-fired. The plant has six turbines capable of generating 645 MW. The company has shifted its focus to low-carbon energy in recent years.

AMPH sells wood fuels, and it delivers distributed energy projects using biomass boiler, stand-by power generation systems and battery storage installations. Billington, on the other hand, supplies around 40,000 tonnes of wood pellet to commercial customers annually. In 2016 it reported a pre-tax loss of GBP 0.43 million on revenues of GBP 6.8 million.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.32/EUR 1.12)

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