Drax has agreed to sell most of Opus Energy Group’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customer book to EDF Energy Customers.
It follows a strategic review of the power company’s non-core SME energy supply business, with EDF taking over 90,000 customer meters from the North Yorkshire-based business. The deal is expected to complete later this year and is said to help develop Drax’s Energy Solutions (Customers) business which is focussed on industrial and commercial customers.
Drax purchased Opus in 2017 for £367m in a move designed to speed up its retail supply ambitions. Since then parts of Opus’ business have been transferred to Drax Energy Solutions which provides wider services for firms such as fleet electrification and management of carbon credits.
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Announcing the sale on the London Stock Exchange, Drax said the disposal would support its decarbonisation strategy and that its Energy Solutions business is unaffected, with no change to the group’s Energy Solutions Ebitda expectations. Opus was set up in 2002 and has since become a challenger brand in the energy to business market supplying around 130,000 premises in the UK.
Earlier this year Drax said full year adjust Ebitda is expected to be in line with analysts’ consensus of around £968m. The Selby-based group recently completed a refinancing exercise to provide £700m which will be used to repay 2025 debt maturities.
The firm is still awaiting news of Government financial support for its proposed bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) with an update expected soon. Drax has touted the environmental benefits of the scheme but campaigners have raised concerns about the origins of wood pellets used at the Selby biomass plant.
Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber
