Industrial magnate snaps up Atlantis in big ‘green’ deal

● Billionaire Sanjeev Gupta extends already sizeable Scottish footprint

A fast-growing Scottish green energy firm has taken a major step to becoming a global player by joining the business empire of billionaire industrial magnate Sanjeev Gupta.

In a reverse takeover, Edinburgh-based tidal power firm Atlantis Resources will acquire Uskmouth power station in south Wales from Simec Energy, a subsidiary of Gupta’s GFG Alliance.

In return, Simec will receive a 49.99 per cent holding in Atlantis Resources, which will be renamed Simec Atlantis Energy. A statement yesterday said: “Simec Atlantis Energy aims to build a highly diversified, global green power enterprise, driving forward the £200 million conversion to renewable energy of Uskmouth power station in South Wales, in addition to the development of the trailblazing Meygen tidal stream project in Scotland and the Wyre Estuary tid“absolutely al barrage project in Lancashire.”

Atlantis is quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s smaller Alternative Investment Market (Aim), and the deal also marks Gupta’s first connection with the publicly listed sector.

GFG Alliance is a $10 billion (£7.5bn) consortium that owns steel, iron and aluminium assets in the UK, including the Dalzell and Clydebridge steel plants in Scotland.

Earlier this month Simec Energy agreed to buy Green Highland Renewables, which runs 18 hydro power schemes in the Scottish Highlands. Last year Gupta splashed out £330m to buy the aluminium smelter plant in Fort William.

Tim Cornelius, chief executive of Atlantis Resources, who will remain head of the publicly listed part of Simec Atlantis Energy, told The Scotsman the tie-up was “ground-breaking, transformational, a very big day for us”.

He said the HQ of the new entity would remain in Edinburgh, where the business employs 65 staff. Cornelius said the deal would involve no job losses”, on the contrary adding 55 Welsh employees from Uskmouth, and that he anticipated job creation over the coming years.

“Increasing Atlantis’s visibility on the global market is imperative and this deal gives us scale and credibility,” he added.

Cornelius said he and his team had been “incentivised” by the new owners, and within three years he would hope to have made Simec Atlantis Energy a FTSE 250-listed company.

Atlantis’s management own between 5 and 10 per cent of the tidal firm, but are not selling down any of their holdings as part of the transaction.

Gupta, GFG’S founder and executive chairman said: “I am delighted to welcome Atlantis to the GFG Alliance with its highly-skilled team and ambitious projects.

“This is the first GFG Alliance member to be listed on the public markets, which in itself is a very important milestone for us.”

He said the potential to create enormous value in renewables in the near term was “tangible and exciting”.”