Ancala Partners, an experienced investor in critical mid-market infrastructure, is to make a substantial further equity investment into Portsmouth Water, a regulated water business in the UK, to fund construction of the Havant Thicket Reservoir and support other growth projects.
Alongside the additional funding, Portsmouth Water has signed a sustainability-linked financing package with ING, NatWest and Siemens to fund the reservoir project. The financing package features a margin-based incentive linked to Portsmouth Water’s performance against environmental and social targets such as water leakage, supply interruptions, carbon reduction, biodiversity and affordability, actively integrating ESG metrics into the company’s financing strategy.
Havant Ticket Reservoir is the first major reservoir to be developed in the UK since the 1980s. The GBP120 million project will play a key role in reducing abstraction from the South East’s internationally renowned chalk streams, the River Itchen and River Test. Portsmouth Water will work in partnership with Southern Water to enable the reliable delivery of 21 million litres of water a day for Southern Water customers in Hampshire, through an 80-year bulk supply agreement. The reservoir is expected to be fully operational by 2029.
With the UK facing the effects of climate change and a growing population, this unique partnership structure, where one water company shares supplies with another company’s customers, represents the first of its kind, and a new way of working within the UK regulated water sector.
Read more/Source: Private Equity Wire
