APR Energy to relist at £1bn
APR ENERGY, the temporary power company bought earlier this year by entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, said it intends to relist its shares on the London Stock Exchange this month.
The re-listing comes just three months after Osmond’s investment vehicle Horizon bought the company for £527m. Horizon’s shares were temporarily suspended but will resume trading as APR on 19 September.
The reverse acquisition could give the enlarged company a market capitalisation of £1bn or more, according to some estimates.
APR is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of temporary power, second only to London-listed Aggreko. The company has grown rapidly thanks to booming demand for generators from emerging markets, where there is a big shortage of electricity.
Natural disasters like the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand have also boosted demand for its generators.
However, APR’s growth has beenheld back by a shortage of capital, which is why the group, which is led by John Campion, co-founder of the business in 2004, agreed to reverse into cash shell Horizon.
“The cash introduced through our reverse into Horizon, coupled with the access to capital markets and our fast growing cash flows, will enable us to compete across the whole market and accelerate our growth further,” APR said in a statement yesterday.
APR was previously part of French power company Alstom, before being spun off in 2004. It is backed by George Soros’s Quantum Strategic Partners and former US secretary of state Madeline Albright’s Albright Capital Management, which together invested $250m in March, bringing their combined stake to around 27 per cent.