PEP-backed Intellihub acquires New Zealand smart meter business

The smart meter business, known as Metrix, manages over 460,000 meters nationwide for household and commercial accounts. It operates separately from Mercury’s core power generation and retail activities. Mercury’s retail business will continue to partner with Metrix following the acquisition, which is expected to close by March.

Mercury initiated the sale of Metrix earlier this year as part of a strategic review of its business, following its unsuccessful attempt to expand into Australia through the purchase of Active Stream, the digital metering subsidiary of AGL Energy. The sale is expected to allow Mercury to focus on its core operations, while providing the company with capital to repay its debt, according to a statement.

PEP and Landis+Gyr formed Intellihub Group in May through the merger of Landis+Gyr subsidiary Intellihub and Acumen, the smart meter subsidiary of Australian power supplier Origin Energy. The partners jointly acquired Acumen for A$267 million ($202 million), and also joined a consortium of Australian and international banks to invest a further A$500 million to expand the company’s operations across Australia.

At the time of the acquisition, Acumen managed about 170,000 smart meters across Australia. The company aims to deploy an additional 800,000 meters through Australia and New Zealand over the next five years.

PEP is Australia’s largest domestic buyout player and has raised five buyout funds since 1998, along with the secure assets fund launched this year through which it invested in Intellihub. Its activity in the energy space includes the purchase of an 80% stake in Australian power plant services provider Energy Developments for $316 million in 2010, which it sold to Duet Group in 2015.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Technology
• Infrastructure
• New Zealand
• Pacific Equity Partners
• energy
• TMT