Hands eyes sale of green energy company Infinis
GUY Hands, the private equity tycoon who failed in a buyout of record label EMI, has reportedly placed the UK’s largest independent renewable energy generator up for sale.
Infinis – which produces seven per cent of Britain’s renewable electricity through landfill, hydro-electricity and wind farms – was acquired by Hands in 2003 for a value of €122m (£106m). The firm employs around 400 people in 146 power plants throughout the UK.
Hands is open to both the outright sale of the firm or a float on the London stock exchange, according to a Sunday Times report. It is thought that he values the company at £1.5bn.
The deal follows Hands’s costly buyout and eventual loss of record label EMI in 2011. Hands was forced to give up EMI to Citigroup as his private equity firm, Terra Firma, defaulted on loan repayments.
Last week Hands, who plans to re-start his court case against Citigroup over the EMI deal, sold Northern Irish firm Phoenix Natural Gas to the Australian infrastructure company Hastings as he sought to recoup his losses from the record label debacle.