Vienna, January 26nd 2010
Cycleenergy Beteiligungs- und Management AG, one of the fastest growing biomass power plant developers and operators in Austria doubled its capacity after successfully securing EUR 10m of equity funds in the third quarter last year with the Portuguese Infrastructure Funds NEF.
Cycleenergy acquired operational biomass plant Bioenergie Gaishorn GmbH in the final days of 2009. The Gaishorn biomass power plant is one of the largest power plants in Styria. It produces electricity for approximately 25,000 households and has a capacity of 21 megawatts. The majority of the heat, which is a by-product of electricity production, is sold to local companies – particularly Mayr Melnhof – and the remaining heat is used to produce 20,000 tons of wood pellets per annum.
“The Gaishorn acquisition is another important milestone in the success story of our company. It also allows us to enter the pellet market,” said Karl Gruber, Technical Director of power plant operations. “The technical status of the power plant and pellets production meets our high standards, so the efficiency of the plant only needs to be improved in small partitions. Nevertheless we plan to raise the pellet production from 20,000 tons to 40,000 tons annually.”
“The Gaishorn takeover will not be the last acquisition this year,” stated Florian Dietz, CEO and co-founder of Cycleenergy. “We will purchase two more operational assets in the next month.” The acquisitions will raise the number of biomass power plants operated by Cycleenergy from four at present to six. “Our project pipeline is full and we will increase our equity value from approximately EUR 20m today up to 30 or 35m by the end of 2010,” said Dietz.
Cycleenergy was founded by the Corporate Finance Boutique Ventacc in 2006 and operates biomass combined heat and power plants based on state guaranteed fixed feed in tariffs and long term heat supply contracts. In 2007 and 2009 international private equity funds invested in Cycleenergy. Cycleenergy had revenues of approximately EUR 15m in 2009.
