Big investment in Cornish technology company
MULTINATIONAL financial services giant Legal & General has invested heavily in a Cornish technology company, kick-starting a huge expansion.
Ground source heat pump specialist Kensa Group said the deal with Legal & General will strengthen its market position, grow its research and development department and allow it to install 50,000 of its ground source heat pumps in the mid-term.
Legal & General has acquired a 36% stake in the Kensa Group and said it aims to speed up the UK’s progress to a low-cost, low-carbon economy. The Truro-based company is the UK’s largest manufacturer and installer of ground source heat pump technology, and the only integrated supplier and one of the most developed and effective for delivering homes with the lowest operational carbon emissions.
Legal & General said its investment in Kensa presents an opportunity to partner with a market leader at a time when growth in the sector is accelerating rapidly.
Alongside offering an alternative low carbon heat solution to existing and new build houses across the UK, the partnership opens up Kensa’s products to Legal & General’s extensive ecosystem, as it works with local authorities, the Government and key industry players.
Within Legal & General’s extensive housing platform, which spans build-to-rent, build-to-sell, later living and affordable housing, as well as modular construction, plans are already under way to make all its new housing stock operationally net carbon neutral by 2030. As part of this, its later living business, Inspired
Villages Group, is in advanced discussions with Kensa to install ground source heat pumps alongside other low carbon initiatives.
Simon Lomax, chief executive of the Kensa Group, said: “This is a significant investment not only for Kensa, but also for the low carbon economy and our region. Legal & General’s support will deliver vital employment opportunities in Cornwall and bolster UK manufacturing in the wake of Covid-19 as attentions return to climate change and the UK’s 2050 net zero carbon target.”