TCC Group Holdings, the majority owner of New HOrizons Ahead (NHOA), intends to increase its holding and take the company private, delisting it from the Euronext Paris exchange.
Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) acquired a 60.48% stake in NHOA in 2021 from previous owner Engie, under which the Italy-headquartered energy storage system integrator and electric mobility infrastructure solutions provider was known as Engie EPS.
It has since increased its stake to 87.78% of NHOA’s share capital following a €250 million (US$270 million) rights issue last year, in which most minority shareholders chose not to exercise preferential subscription rights.
TCC Group Holdings said this morning (13 June) that it intends to file a simplified Tender Offer for NHOA shares at €1.10 per share, and request implementation of a squeeze-out of remaining holdings if legal conditions are met at the offer’s conclusion.
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The squeeze-out procedure would see NHOA’s shares delisted from Euronext Paris, where they have been trading since 2015, peaking in December 2021 at €12.90.
Taiwan Cement Corporation, in business for over 78 years, rebranded its English name to TCC Group Holdings following a shareholders’ meeting in May. With the rebrand came a shift in emphasis from its core cement business to 11 industries.
Over the past six years, the group has made investments into areas including renewable energy, smart grids, battery energy storage system (BESS) technology, and lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cell production.
Post-acquisition, NHOA company leadership claimed that TCC’s ownership would enable synergies between the parent company’s upstream technology investments with NHOA’s experience in downstream deployment of battery storage and EV infrastructure.
Speaking at a TCC AGM in mid-2022, group chairman Nelson Chang highlighted the importance of investing in energy storage as a strategic business and “key to the future of energy.”
Both TCC and NHOA have previously outlined plans to rapidly grow energy storage deployments and market share. TCC Group Holdings said NHOA will require “significant investments” that could be more easily decided on and implemented as a private, non-listed company.
The company claimed that private ownership would enable more long-term strategic decision-making that would be less exposed to financial market expectations, regulatory costs, and share price fluctuations.
TCC Group Holdings also claimed that with it already holding a large majority of shares and with low volumes being traded on the market, being listed was not particularly beneficial to NHOA.
New projects booked or announced by NHOA in the past year include a 107MWh project at a TCC cement plant in mainland China, a 31MWh BESS in Peru for former owner Engie, a win in Italy’s low-carbon capacity market auctions, and two projects in Taiwan for its parent company: one a 311MWh BESS asset designed for a new frequency regulation grid service commissioned in December 2023, and more recently a 120MWh system which will perform behind-the-meter (BTM) peak shaving as well as ancillary grid services.
Energy-Storage.news has approached representatives of NHOA for comment on the proposed transaction and will update this story in due course as applicable.
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