Hambro Perks to acquire Ombu's portfolio

RNS Number : 2415J

Schroder UK Public Private Tst plc

21 December 2020

 

Schroder UK Public Private Trust plc (the "Company")

Hambro Perks to acquire Ombu's portfolio

The Company (LSE: SUPP) announces that Hambro Perks, a UK venture firm and investment management platform, has agreed to acquire the entire issued share capital of Ombu Group Limited ("Ombu"), a specialist investor in early and growth stage environmental technologies, in which the Company is a minority shareholder.  

The transaction was financed by HP Environmental Technologies Fund LP ("HPET"), a newly-established vehicle focussed on emerging environmental technologies with anchor investors which include Hambro Perks, Ombu's existing management team and a number of other private and institutional investors.

T he sale of Ombu is facilitating a cash exit for a number of shareholders in Ombu, however, the Portfolio Manager considered the cash acquisition price offered by HPET to be more reflective of the shareholder dynamics surrounding Ombu, than a fundamental assessment of the portfolio value. Hence, the Portfolio Manager has since worked closely with Hambro Perks to structure an alternative option to allow the Company to retain exposure to the underlying portfolio and its future value creation potential. As a result, the Company has now elected to contribute its shareholding in Ombu in return for a partnership interest in HPET.

Hambro Perks will assume management of the portfolio alongside Ombu's existing management team, which includes Founder and CEO Stephen Brooke, Investment Director Duncan White and Sir John Rose who will be Chairman of HPET and join the Hambro Perks advisory board. Hambro Perks will complement the existing management team by providing expertise both in terms of operational support and access to capital as the portfolio scales.

It is anticipated that, based on the terms of the transaction, the Company's AIFM will revalue the holding to a valuation of £4.0 million implied by the acquisition price, representing a 71% discount to the latest carrying value of the Company's holding in Ombu which stood at £14.0 million as of 30 September 2020. This will be reflected in the NAV calculation as at 31 December 2020, which will be announced in the Company's annual report and accounts for the year ending 31 December 2020.

About Ombu

Ombu is a holding company owning stakes in seven environmental technology companies. Ombu was founded as a specialist early and growth stage investor in environmental technologies. It made its first investments in 2011.

The Ombu portfolio consists of:

· Bluewater Bio - Bluewater Bio provides water treatment technologies and solutions, focused on rapid upgrading, optimisation and monitoring of water and wastewater treatment plans.

· Bowman - Bowman develops waste to heat energy hardware technologies to improve engine efficiency, reduce emissions and reduce fuel consumption.

· driivz - driivz provides software solutions which enable Electric Vehicle (EV) charging network operators to efficiently manage their infrastructure and customers.

· i20 - i20 is a smart water network solutions provider to water utilities around the world - helping them to monitor and manage their freshwater distribution networks.

· Iceotope - Iceotope is a leader in chassis-level liquid cooling technologies for the data and Edge-of-Network cooling market. Such technologies help data centre owners reduce their carbon footprint significantly, whilst cost-effectively managing the explosive growth in data generation.

· Open Energi - Open Energi is an energy management platform for automating and optimising distributed asses in real time to reduce energy costs and provide flexile capacity to enable a 100% renewable energy system.

· P2i - P2i provides a suite of liquid-repellent nanocoating solutions to OEMs in the global electronics industry to improve the reliability of their products and reduce waste.

This announcement contains Inside Information as defined under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

Enquiries:

Schroder Investment Management Limited    

Gareth Faith

Tel: [phone]

 

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