Asterion fund buys German energy company STEAG and values it at 2.6 billion
The Spanish investment and infrastructure fund Asterion has bought the energy company STEAG from the KSBG consortium, representative of several municipal companies in the German Ruhr region, in a deal that values the acquired company at around €2.6 billion and enters the German market.
According to the Spanish company, which expects to complete the transaction by the end of the year, the purchase seeks to promote the conversion of STEAG into a sustainable energy generator, in addition to making the German entity a key player in the energy transition in Europe.
The seller is the consortium Kommunale Beteiligungsgesellschaft (KSBG), which represents the municipal utilities of the cities of Dortmund, Duisburg, Bochum, Essen, Oberhausen and Dinslaken.
The Madrid-based fund commits to support STEAG’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2040 by investing in the German utility’s clean energy firm Iqony. This investment will fund projects related to hydrogen, batteries, solar and wind generation, and district heating, creating more green jobs.
In turn, Asterion will support transition technologies such as flexible, hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants.
Spanish investment and infrastructure fund Asterion enters Germany
The acquisition of STEAG marks the Spanish fund’s entry into Germany, where it will “support the government’s plans to phase out the use of coal”, after expanding its presence in the energy industry to France, Italy and the UK as well as Spain.
For this new phase, the Spanish fund will continue the development of STEAG with the current management teams of both STEAG and Iqony and will maintain Essen as the corporate headquarters of the two acquired companies.
The CEO of Asterion Industrial Partners, Jesús Olmos, has highlighted in the note the experience of the fund’s team in managing companies in green transformation to help meet STEAG’s decarbonisation plans and generate new green jobs.
Asterion is one of the largest infrastructure funds, with around 5,000 million euros in assets under management, and in the energy sector it participates in the Spanish company Barter Energy, the British company AMP Clean Energy, the Italian company Sorgenia and a combined cycle power plant in France.
It also owned the development platform Asterion Energies, which managed a portfolio of 7,700 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy projects in Spain, Italy and France and was sold to Repsol at the end of 2022.
