- Ocea is a provider of smart water and heat metering infrastructure in France, operating under long-term inflation-linked contracts in an industry benefiting from long term visibility and regulation-driven growth
- Ocea helps the energy transition through measurement of individual consumption, which significantly incentivizes customers to make more environmentally conscious decisions. Submeter installation is shown to reduce energy consumption and water usage by 15%1
- ICG Infra strongly supported Ocea on significant initiatives to contribute to its growth in the energy transition. EQT plans to further accelerate the Company’s growth, applying its track record in the energy and environmental sectors
ICG, the global alternative asset manager, today announced that ICG Infrastructure Equity I (“ICG Infra“) has entered exclusive negotiations to sell Ocea Group (“Ocea“, or the “Company“) to EQT Active Core Infrastructure fund (“EQT“).
Ocea aims to play a key role in the rollout of smart water and heat submetering devices leading to tangible savings for customers and positive impact for the environment. It operates more than four million heat and water submeters. Through long-term, 10+ year inflation-linked contracts, the company provides a comprehensive range of submetering services to over 7,000 public and private collective housings, including installation and rental, reading and data collection, and maintenance and replacement.
The Company is expected to benefit from favourable growth trends in the French submetering market owing to regulation and strong consumer demand to allocate and reduce consumption. Penetration rates are expected to improve both across the water and heat segment, while creating significant adjacent business opportunities.
Since acquiring a majority stake in Ocea in 2019, ICG Infra undertook a series of initiatives to support its growth in the energy transition, driven by a management team of seasoned executives led by CEO Emmanuel Croc.
EQT plans to support Ocea’s growth in its core submetering business and across other adjacent solutions in the environmental, data management and smart housing segments. EQT would help Ocea to continue the expansion of its asset and client base, drive growth through capex-enabled sustainable energy solutions and make significant investments in digital customer services.
Guillaume d’Engremont, Head of Infrastructure at ICG, commented:
Emmanuel Croc, Chief Executive Officer of Ocea, said:
Fabian Gröne, Partner in the EQT Active Core Infrastructure Advisory Team, said:
Thomas Rajzbaum, Partner and Head of EQT’s French Infrastructure Advisory Team, added:
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory conditions and approvals, including to information and consultation of Ocea’s works council. It is expected to close in Q2-Q3 2024.
ICG was advised by Ayache (legal), Bird&Bird (legal) and Eight Advisory (finance).
EQT was advised by Rothschild & Co (financial), Linklaters LLP (legal), BCG (commercial and ESG) and KPMG (finance and tax).
For further information please contact:
Catherine Armstrong
Interim Head of Corporate Communications
T. +44 20 3545 1850
M. +44 7710 358 313
Email: [email protected]
About ICG
ICG provides flexible capital solutions to help companies develop and grow. We are a leading global alternative asset manager with over 35 years’ history, managing $86.3bn of assets* and investing across the capital structure. We operate across four asset classes: Structured and Private Equity, Private Debt, Real Assets, and Credit.
ICG develops long-term relationships with its business partners to deliver value for shareholders, clients and employees, and uses its position of influence to benefit the environment and society. ICG is committed to being a net zero asset manager across our operations and relevant investments by 2040.
ICG is a member of the FTSE 100 and listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: ICP). Further details are available at www.icgam.com. You can follow ICG on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Instagram
ICG Infra Team manages more than €2.5bn in Europe and seeks to partner with successful management teams and founders, providing growth capital to mid-market businesses across the energy transition, digital and mobility sectors.
ICG Infra Team leverages ICG’s DNA of bespoke capital solutions, investing across capital structures in equity and structured equity instruments creating a defensive risk-return profile for its portfolio whilst seeking to deliver consistent returns for its investors.
About Ocea Group
Groupe OCEA employs around 550 people throughout France (28 agencies) to accelerate the energy transition of collective housing and tertiary buildings through its 3 subsidiaries:
- Ocea Smart Building: sub-metering of water and heating, water and energy costs allocation and digital solutions for energy management. Our client promise is to reduce their consumption (up to 15% on average across the portfolio).
- Isiom Conseil: assisting public and private clients for audits and actions plans in order to optimize their property assets, specially on energy efficiency.
- Qowisio: the specialist in IoT solutions (like temperature sensors, Air Quality) and connectivity.
More info: www.groupe-ocea.fr
About EQT
EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization with EUR 232 billion in total assets under management (EUR 130 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. EQT owns portfolio companies and assets in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and supports them in achieving sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.
More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram
1Source: ADEME, L’individualisation des frais de chauffage, February 2023
* As at 31 December 2023