Elenia
- Sector Utilities
- Year invested 2012
- Location Finland
- Status Realised
Elenia is the owner and operator of the second largest electricity distribution business in Finland and a complementary district heating business.
Overview
The company’s electricity distribution network is c 69,000 km in length and serves c 420,000 residential, industrial and business customers, with a market share of approximately 12%. Elenia Heat owns and operates 16 local district heating networks across Finland with a total network length of almost 500 km serving c 85,000 end-users.
3i Infrastructure acquired its interest in Elenia in January 2012 as part of a consortium with GS Infrastructure Partners and Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
In December 2017, 3i Infrastructure sold its stake in Elenia to a consortium comprising Allianz, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and Valtion Eläkerahasto, the State Pension Fund of Finland, generating gross proceeds of approximately £725 million.
How we added value
- Rebranded the business and strengthened the management team
- Invested over €600m to improve reliability of electricity supply for customers
- Increased underground cabling rate from 23% at the beginning of 2012 to 40% in 2017
- Reduced customer outages by over 10 hours per year
- Refinanced the business increasing flexibility to fund future capex requirements
- Invested in leading digital network management and ‘smart’ customer usage and outage monitoring
I would like to thank 3i, GS Infrastructure Partners and Ilmarinen for their support over the last six years. Their investment, guidance, expertise and commitment have enabled us to grow and improve both operationally, for the benefit of our customers, and financially.
Regulatory information
This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Investments plc.