Photo by: Creamer Media
First Rand’s Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has acquired a 25% stake in Remgro’s Ubiquity Energy platform, the holding company of Energy Exchange, which is an electricity trader licensed by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
The value of the acquisition has not been disclosed.
The transaction, the companies said in a joint statement, was supportive of investments in South Africa’s private power market and of unlocking South Africa’s renewable-energy resources.
RMB infrastructure sector solutions transactor Sindisiwe Mosoeu reported that Energy Exchange, as a large-scale purchaser of electricity, could connect corporates with privately produced renewable electricity to meet their decarbonisation goals.
Through the platform, corporate buyers could secure a blend of energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydro rather than relying on a single source.
Remgro strategic investments executive Pieter Uys added that Energy Exchange offered the benefit of aggregation, allowing multiple customers to access scale benefits in procuring energy.
“In turn, large power generators are able to negotiate with a single centralised electricity buyer,” Uys said, adding that electricity tariffs charged by Energy Exchange were competitive and would escalate at the rate of inflation.
RMB principal investments transactor Philip de Villiers said the bank’s acquisition would support the generation and provision of sustainable privately produced power, which he described as “critical to solving our energy challenges”.
“The South African market requires a material shift in the way electricity is produced, sold, and consumed and will need bold thinking and innovative solutions,” De Villiers added.