Energy supplier Yuno Group has bought the Firmus gas supply business in Northern Ireland in a deal understood to be worth around €40 million.
Yuno Group is one of the bigger electricity and gas suppliers in the Republic with both bill-paying and pay-as-you-go customers.
It confirmed on Thursday that it has bought Firmus Energy (Supply) Ltd in Northern Ireland from the Firmus Group, marking its first move across the border.
Neither side disclosed the price, but sources calculate that the Firmus business sold for around €40 million. Specialist fund manager Equitix, owned the Firmus group.
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According to a statement, Firmus Energy is the biggest natural gas supplier in the North, with 113,000 homes and businesses on its books.
Cathal Fay, Yuno’s founder and chief executive, dubbed the deal “transformational”, saying it boosted customer numbers by one third and opened new growth opportunities.
“We believe we can add real value to Firmus Energy’s strong platform, and that the transaction will greatly strengthen our overall business,” he said.
Mr Fay noted that Firmus offered “outstanding service” to its customers and pledged to build on this.
The Dublin-based group owns both the Yuno and Prepay Power businesses in the Republic. This deal will bring sales to €600 million a year, give it a total of 410,000 customers and boost its workforce to almost 600.
Mr Fay began the business with Prepay Power, the pre-paid electricity supplier, in 2009. That is now the biggest pre-paid energy business in the Republic.
The group launched Yuno as a bill-paying electricity supplier in August last year. That added natural gas to its services in September.
Firmus said that its customers would not need to take any steps as a result of the deal and predicted that the change of ownership would be “seamless”. The group will continue to own Firmus Energy (Distribution) Ltd, which runs the Ten Towns gas network in Northern Ireland.
Niall Martindale, chief executive of Firmus Energy (Distribution) explained that the supply business was ready to stand alone and predicted that it would continue growing under Yuno’s ownership.
“We will continue to own and operate the networks business, where our focus will be the growth of connections to our gas network,” he said.
The network runs between Derry and Co Antrim and south to Newry in Co Down. Mr Martindale noted that it would also focus on bringing renewable gas, including biomethane, into the network.
The Ten Towns network is a monopoly and is licensed and supervised by Northern Ireland’s Utility Regulator.
Sion Jones, Equitix chief operations officer, also predicted that the Firmus supply operation would grow under Yuno’s ownership. He added that the fund manager’s partnership with the Northern Ireland group had “achieved incredible outcomes”.
Equitix focuses on investing in infrastructure. It manages assets worth around $14 billion (€12.9 billion) and has operations in 10 countries.
Belfast law firm Tughans and accountants KPMG advised Yuno Group on the deal. IBI Corporate Finance, Carson McDowell and PWC advised Firmus Energy, according to a statement.
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