Right sector and right time for Net Zero Infrastructure
“…The peaks and troughs of energy usage and how we efficiently get that around the grid and the system is the solution that you have to provide and I see NZI as being part of that trajectory…”
With 13 UK energy firms collapsing since the start of September, and the United Nations climate change conference about to snarl up the City of Glasgow, timing is everything when you’re launching a company dedicated to clean and renewable energy security.
Admittedly the board of Net Zero Infrastructure plc, like the rest of the nation, had no inclination that there was going to be an energy conundrum when it chose to list on September 15th, but in a perverse way the wholesale gas price dilemma has reinforced the company’s decision that it is in the right sector.
It is one of those now unusual entities that are cash shells, popular in the UK two decades ago, stamped on by regulators here but popular in the United States. Its purpose, as a special purpose acquisition company, is to make an acquisition in the renewable and clean energy sector that gives it access to and allows it to own the infrastructure integral to energy security.
Chairman Mike Ellwood singles out energy parks and storage solutions as being of real interest to the company that has committed to making its first acquisition within two years. If that doesn’t happen surplus cash is returned to shareholders.
Ellwood is determined that won’t happen. He, like other members of the board have reputations to maintain as well as promises to keep, and if they can’t find a business that needs capital while net zero, carbon neutral and the posters of Greta Thunberg are still trending, then there would be serious corporate embarrassment.
With just over a million pounds in the bank, he speaks plainly about focus and simplicity. “The peaks and troughs of energy usage and how we efficiently get that around the grid and the system is the solution that you have to provide and I see NZI as being part of that trajectory.”
He wants cash flow positivity from the get go and hopes the acquisition will be the first of several. “I think we could find the right acquisition to give us a real buoyant start from which we’re able to find other opportunities and acquisitions to add to it, and create a small group growing quickly at the forefront of the development in the infrastructure.”
Listen to Mike telling Sarah Lowther about what happens if the company gets it right and what shareholders will receive if it doesn’t.
Access the company’s IPO Prospectus here
Follow the company on Twitter – @NZI_plc
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company
