Energy transition? Smart meter rollout? YES!
Solandeo, the leading competitive metering service provider and supplier of digital smart meter-based solutions, is acquired by the globally active infrastructure fund Ancala Partners and is geared towards growth.Solandeo’s customer 1komma5 supports the growth plans and orders 500,000 smart meters in a historic major order – the largest order in Solandeo’s history to date.The widespread use of smart meters is considered a key factor in the implementation of the energy transition, as it is seen as the basis for the successful control and monitoring of decentralised generation of electrical energy. This is the focus of the great Solandeo team led by Nora Rieger and Friedrich Rojahn.
“In Ancala, we have found an investor and strategic owner to drive our strategy forward and allow us to fully capitalise on our leading position in the German smart metering market. With the Ancala team, we will expand the business, lead the smart meter rollout in Germany and play an increasing role in Germany’s energy transition.”
Friedrich Rojahn, Founder and Managing Director, Solandeo
“Solandeo is a unique platform that will continue to take a leading role in the German mandatory metering rollout, with a particular focus on consumers, producers and energy suppliers in the household and industrial markets. Solandeo’s existing order book, customer relationships and technology provide us with an exciting opportunity to scale into the growth that is now presenting itself. We will be actively working with Friedrich, Nora and the team to deliver Solandeo’s growth plan.”
Tim Power, Partner at Ancala
Solandeo was forced to file for self-administration at the end of April 2024. Dentons restructuring experts Dirk Schoene and Judith Schmid were appointed by the management as general authorised representatives. Dr Susanne Berner, a lawyer specialising in insolvency and restructuring law from the law firm Dr Berner & Partner Rechtsanwälte PartG mbB, was appointed as provisional administrator. WAYES supported the preparation and implementation of the provisional self-administration proceedings with the necessary liquidity planning.
The WAYES transaction team led by Michael Rabe was exclusively commissioned to conduct the investor process. As a result of the highly competitive international investor process, the transaction was realised within a few weeks and the application for self-administration proceedings was withdrawn. Legal support for the transaction on the seller side was provided by a Dentons team led by transaction and energy expert Thomas Schubert.
About Solandeo (www.solandeo.com)
Solandeo is the leading smart meter operator in Germany. As a competitive metering point operator, Solandeo already manages thousands of smart meters nationwide. Partners and customers alike benefit from our value-added services such as real-time data and plant-specific forecasts based on artificial intelligence. The multi-gigawatt portfolio of renewable generation capacity covers all sizes – from 3 kWp rooftop PV systems to 150 MW wind farms.
About Ancala (www.ancala.com)
Ancala has invested almost €1bn in critical infrastructure companies operating within energy transition and renewables. On average, the leading infrastructure investor has provided more than 40% of the initial investment capital in follow-on funding to enable its portfolio firms to grow organically and through acquisition.