Cindrigo Powers Up : Waste-to-Energy Revenues to Fuel Europe’s Next Geothermal Growth Story
“…Our biomass plant in Finland is expected to become a core revenue generator for the Group, providing the foundation to advance our geothermal portfolio in Germany…”
Flush with funds to invest in highly prospective waste-to-energy (WtE) and geothermal prospects, Cindrigo Holdings (LON:CINH), which joined LSE’s Main Market very recently, offers an intriguing entry point to Europe’s rapidly growing market for renewable baseload energy.
CINH’s flagship interest is a 90pc holding in the Kaipola Combined Heat and Power Biomass Plant, near the city of Tampere in southern Finland. Primed for a rapid scale-up in production, Kaipola has the capacity to generate 25 MW of electricity and 85 MW of steam through the combustion of waste wood.
Revenue from Kaipola will support the development of CINH’s three geothermal projects in south-western Germany, one of Europe’s major geothermal hubs, and the focus of committed support from German regional and federal governments.
CINH is led by CEO Lars Guldstrand, who brings more than 35 years of executive and international investing experience in the energy, technology, telecoms and media sectors, and vastly experienced Chairman Jörgen Andersson, formerly a Swedish energy minister, member of the Swedish Central Bank, Chairman of Vattenfall and Director at Sydkraft, now owned by private energy giant E.ON.
Ramping up production at Kaipola
CINH aims to build Kaipola into a reliable and environmentally sustainable option for the delivery of baseload power across Finland and beyond.
Baseload energy, the minimum level of electricity that must be continuously supplied for a power grid to function, has traditionally been secured by nuclear, coal, oil-fired and hydroelectric plants. While renewable sources such as wind and solar are compromised by their dependence on optimal weather conditions, biomass plants can be relied upon for constant production, burning consumer and industrial biowaste to generate heat to drive steam turbines. They typically combust agricultural or forestry residues, and some forms of paper waste.
Kaipola currently uses waste wood as its primary fuel source, specifically discarded material from sawmill and sustainable forestry operations such as branches, treetops, and bark. There is no dependence on newly felled trees. Kaipola uses only wood stripped from the main logs used in industries such as sawmilling, furniture manufacturing and agriculture. And the plant is carbon neutral, producing no methane.
Heat production began late last year, supplied to tenants of the industrial park where the plant is located and will soon supply the neighbouring village of Kaipola. CINH’s admission to the LSE, which raised gross proceeds of £2.06m together with the conversion of £9.3m of Convertible Loan Notes, will support a significant increase in operations. The company aims to increase electricity and heat output to 40MW to meet the power requirements of the plant’s principal heat and steam offtake partner, due to open its new factory before the end of the year. Terms have been agreed for the sale of heat and steam for an initial term of five years, and thereafter on a rolling yearly basis.
CINH plans to ramp up production to 60-70 MW through 2026, and scale as new customers are connected, with the option to feed Kaipola’s power into the national power grid through Nord Pool, a leading European power trading company. The plant’s steam will initially be sold at approximately €70 per megawatt-hour (MWh), a rate adjusted annually in accordance with the Helen Index, a market-based price index representing the cost of Finnish energy. CINH intends to seek environmental approval to restructure the fuel mix to enable it to burn a wider range of waste, offering further opportunities to reduce costs and improve margins.
Speaking after CINH’s admission, CEO Lars Guldstrand said: ‘Admission to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange marks a significant milestone for Cindrigo as we progress our strategy to deliver long-life, sustainable baseload energy assets across Europe. Our biomass plant in Finland is expected to become a core revenue generator for the Group, providing the foundation to advance our geothermal portfolio in Germany, one of the most attractive and supportive markets for green baseload power and heat … With strong policy backing, long-term pricing structures and the growing need for reliable, clean energy, we believe the opportunity in geothermal is considerable.’
The company has received the LSE’s Green Economy Mark, which recognises companies and funds deriving 50pc or more of their revenues, or – if pre-revenue – 100pc of their business activity, from products and services contributing to the global green economy.
Kaipola will contribute to rapidly growing global demand for WtE driven by ever rising volumes of municipal solid waste and urgent demand for sustainable waste disposal solutions. Over the past 30 years, the volume of municipal waste processed across the world by WtE plants has increased by more than 16 million tonnes, and the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.3pc by 2032.
A report published by analysts Capital Plus Partners in July 2025, ‘Powering-Up for IPO and Main Market Listing’, highlights Kaipola’s significant prospects for growth. Originally constructed in 1991 as the energy provider for a large-scale pulp and paper mill developed by United Paper Mills, the plant was acquired by CINH last year at virtually no up-front capital cost, in a share-plus-cash deal valued at €18.8m.
Some €1.5m has subsequently been invested to recommission the plant, with only minimal ongoing capital expenditure expected over the coming years. An independent industry valuation, based on a depreciated asset replacement cost methodology, has assessed the plant’s fair market value at €85m, with a full infrastructure value estimated at €110m. The estimated cost of constructing an equivalent waste-wood-burning power plant today would be approximately half a billion euros.
On the basis that Kaipola can ensure financial viability by operating at a minimum combined output of around 40 MW, the Nordic research firm eMergers has set an Enterprise Value for the plant of £52m, and a near-term (12-month) equity value of £100m after considering Cindrigo’s geothermal assets equivalent to 30p per share.
Kaipola has potential to generate further value. It may offer opportunities for a carbon capture facility, enabling CINH to charge a ‘gate fee’ for waste processing, effectively turning a cost-of-sales expense into an income credit. And it can be adapted to burn a wider range of waste materials such as plastics and animal waste.
Geothermal prospects primed for growth
CINH has an 85pc stake in three geothermal development projects in Germany, Eich, Worms and Weinheim, covering a total area of 125 km2 with an estimated combined heat and power resource potential of perhaps 400 MW. Situated in the proven geothermal region of the Upper Rhine Graben thrust belt, a mature, producing field where more than 400 oil and gas and 24 deep geothermal wells have already been drilled, the projects are also prospective for lithium, as underlined by the recent commissioning of a lithium extraction optimisation plant at Worms.
Drawing on the natural heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface, and leaving no more than water vapour as a by-product, geothermal is arguably the world’s largest untapped source of renewable energy. The heat that continuously flows from the earth’s core opens the prospect of green power unaffected by the intermittency inherent to solar and wind.
Geothermal is accessed through wells – which can be as shallow as a few hundred metres or as deep as three kilometres – that release high-pressure steam or hot water which can heat buildings directly, or turn turbines to generate electricity. The International Energy Agency estimates that if the $2.8tn of investment necessary for its full development were committed, geothermal could produce up to 8pc of the world’s electricity by 2050. The technology is attracting increasing interest from Meta, Google and Microsoft and other big tech firms, which have struck significant power purchase agreements with geothermal developers as they seek green energy for AI data centres.
CINH’s strategy targets an initial annual output of 90 MW from the three projects, to be ramped up to at least 300 MW. Revenue would fund the installation of a lithium extraction plant producing some 500 tonnes of lithium per year.
That will require considerable investment: geothermal development is capital intensive. CINH estimates drilling costs of around €20m per site, with completion times of two to three years. But the projects are ideally positioned to access support from German federal and regional governments committed to rapidly building out the country’s geothermal infrastructure.
Germany has a long history of using geothermal energy for heating, electricity generation, and recreational purposes. A recent paper published by the federal government outlined strategies for targeting 10 terawatt-hours (equivalent to one trillion watt-hours) of geothermal output from medium-depth and deep resources by 2030, an ambition that would effect a tenfold increase in geothermal’s contribution to the German heating grid.
The German government aims to add at least 100 additional geothermal projects by 2030, connect them to district heating networks, and make geothermal energy usable in residential buildings, neighbourhoods, and industrial processes. Federal support for producers is available under the Federal Funding for Efficient Heating Networks (BEW) subsidy programme that covers up to 40pc of construction capital expenditure for district geothermal heating facilities. The KfW Group (Germany’s federal development bank) and the Munich Re Group have launched a joint insurance programme to hedge against exploration risk and support further geothermal development. Risk insurance coverage extends to up to 90pc of drilling costs in cases of dry or low-yield wells.
These and other initiatives will elaborate an already well established geothermal infrastructure. Many major drilling and service companies already operate in the country, with German manufacturers supplying rigs, auxiliary equipment, casings, and plant components for domestic and international geothermal operations.
This highly supportive environment promises to greatly reduce upfront capital requirements for ambitious market entrants like CINH. The company has already entered into a framework agreement with Kaishan, a leading manufacturer of and service provider to geothermal plants. Under the agreement, Kaishan will supply plant and equipment for CINH’s geothermal projects on deferred payment terms, with approximately 70pc of above-ground build costs payable six months after the plant’s commercial operation date.
CINH’s projects would also have access to Germany’s well-developed geothermal tariff scheme. The German Renewable Energy Sources Act offers a stable and transparent support scheme for electricity generation using geothermal resources, with a feed-in tariff for geothermal power of 25-euro cents per kilowatt-hour over a 20-year term. A feed-in tariff is a government-backed payment scheme compensating businesses for generating their own renewable electricity. Participants receive payments for the electricity they generate, which includes a generation tariff for all power created and an export tariff for any surplus electricity sold back to the national grid.
Further information
CINH joined the LSE at a price of 12p, with a market cap of just over £40m. Cindrigo’s directors joined a free live post-listing presentation hosted by Investor Meet Company last Thursday offering further information about the company’s strategy, ambitions, and rationale for listing on the Exchange.
To view the latest Cindrigo corporate presentaion Click Here
To listen to a recent Interview with CEO Lars Guldstrand and StockBoxMedia – Click Here
