Iona Capital Ltd, a leading investor in the UK bioenergy sector, is pleased to announce that it has acquired MT Energie’s UK Service business from MT Energie’s German administrator. Following the acquisition, the business has been renamed Advantage Biogas (“Advantage”) and is targeting the growing demand from operators of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants for quality, independent technical services and operational support.
Advantage Biogas has a solid existing service business supporting UK AD plants originally built by MT Energie. Iona’s investment will, however, allow Advantage to now build a strong platform that will provide a wide range of technical support services to AD plants of any design and technology.
Advantage Biogas will be investing heavily in recruitment and training in the coming months and will expand its ability to deliver both on-site scheduled and reactive maintenance as well as operational and biological support to optimise client plant performance. Furthermore, Advantage will be able to design and project manage plant upgrades and expansions.
Alongside the investment, Advantage has recruited Matt Powell as Managing Director to drive the growth and ensure a strong commercial and technical capability is developed. Matt brings a wealth of experience in design and operations and was previously responsible for the delivery and operation of the Vale Green Energy gas-to-grid AD plants as well as several AD gas upgrade units with Pentair which included full CO2 recovery systems allowing the sale of the renewable CO2 product as well as the biomethane.
Matt Powell, MD of Advantage, stated: “I am very excited to be joining Advantage at his time. Iona’s investment could not be more timely. The UK AD sector has grown dramatically over the last five years and it is screaming out for independent technical service providers who can help not only in fixing problems that arise, but also improve maintenance standards and operating performance. We will be investing significant funds in developing Advantage’s capabilities and look forward to working with both our existing and new clients in the coming months and years”.
Nick Ross, Director at Iona Capital Ltd, said: “Iona has invested broadly across the UK AD sector. This investment is a recognition that there is clearly pent up demand for independent technical support from a range of AD plant operators. We are convinced that Advantage will be a fantastic platform upon which to build a leading services business to help the sector reach its potential”.
