Windpower group rebuffs 90m bid from GuyHands’ energy firm Infinis
GUY Hands’ energy group Infinis yesterday launched a hostile £90m takeover bid for wind power group Novera.
Novera, which is being advised by Oriel, immediately rejected the offer, saying the 62.5p a share price significantly undervalued the company.
Infinis already owned 29.9 per cent of Novera and yesterday increased this to more than 40 per cent by buying a 13 per cent stake from a Credit Suisse fund.
The stake-building is reminiscent of moves made by private equity groups prior to the recent downturn.
The share-buying comes just days after the unexplained departure of Novera chief executive David Fitzsimmons.
Infinis, whose adviser is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said it had been working on the deal for some weeks and that its timing was not affected by the shake-up of Novera’s management team.
Brokers KBC Peel Hunt said that a fair price for the company was about 80-85p a share.
“We do not see a management hiatus as a reason to sell cheaply,” said KBC’s Andrew Shepherd-Barron.
Infinis Energy is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Infinis Holdings which is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Guy Hands’ private equity group Terra Firma.
Infinis is one of the UK's largest generators of renewable energy.
Novera is an established UK-focused renewable energy company that generates electricity from a portfolio of three businesses: wind, water and landfill gas.