Macquarie Group trims stake in Energy Assets

MAJOR shareholder Macquarie Group has begun reducing its stake in Energy Assets, the Livingston-based gas meter manager that it floated on the main market last year.

The Australian investment bank cut its shareholding from 46.78 per cent to 39.44 per cent, with Henderson Global Investors increasing its stake to 16.04 per cent from 9.18 per cent.

Energy Assets was founded in 2005 by chief executive Phil Bellamy-Lee and Alan McKeating, who sold the company to Macquarie in 2009.

At the time of the initial public offering (IPO), Macquarie had said that it planned to sell a further seven million shares, with the first two million changing hands on Friday, according to documents released yesterday.

Shares in Energy Assets, which is chaired by former Aggreko executive chairman Chris Masters, closed up 6.8 per cent or 17.88p at 280p, having floated at 210p in March, 2012. The market value of the company has risen from about £57m to around £71m since the IPO.

Macquarie’s other recent deals in the UK have included providing €60 million (£52m) of funding for Mainstream Renewable Power, which has applied for planning permission to build the giant Neart na Gaoithe wind farm off the coast of Fife, and buying rail assets in November from Lloyds Banking Group.