Member Article

Clarke Energy acquires southern African businesses

Merseyside-based Clarke Energy has made two key acquisitions in South Africa – GE’s South African Jenbacher gas engines Service Business and Agaricus Trading Pty Ltd, official sales representative of GE Jenbacher in the region. In parallel, Clarke Energy has been awarded the status of Jenbacher gas engines distributor and service provider in South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana.

Clarke Energy, whose UK headquarters are in Kirkby, provides delivery and maintenance of gas engine power plants. The firm’s services range from the supply of a gas engine, through to the complete turnkey installation of a gas-fuelled CHP plant.

The two key acquisitions in southern Africa further expand Clarke Energy’s reach in Africa following the establishment of an East African hub in Tanzania in 2012. Clarke Energy will continue to deliver added value to the Jenbacher product platform through engineering and installation of gas-fuelled power plants and delivering aftersales support.

The acquisitions provide the firm with opportunities for further growth, from securing contracted service revenue and sales into the gas to power segments.

All three countries have significant electricity demand requirements and have reserves of gas that can be utilised for power. South Africa is an established country in terms of using GE’s gas engines technology with an existing installed base of about 80MW of Jenbacher gas engines.

The country also sits on significant fields of unconventional gas contained within shale rock. Discoveries of natural gas off the coast of Mozambique are world class, with the country being set to be a key player in the global LNG market. Botswana sits on reserves of unconventional gas, such as those associated with coal deposits.

GE’s South African Service Business was established in 2009 to deliver aftersales support for the Jenbacher product in the region.

Agaricus Trading Pty Ltd is a South African company that has acted as sales representative for GE’s Jenbacher product in the region since 2005.

Combining the sales and service functions for southern Africa will provide benefits to the customer base as there will be a single point of contact for the sales and service of Jenbacher gas engines in southern Africa. Going forwards South Africa will therefore have a traditional distributor model for the Jenbacher product line.

Jamie Clarke, CEO of Clarke Energy said: “The strategic acquisition of GE’s service hub and Agaricus Trading will enable us to support Jenbacher customers from sale through to engineering, installation and maintenance of their gas fuelled generation equipment. Our investment in aftersales support and experience with the product will deliver high levels of equipment availability which will in-turn will be a significant benefit to Jenbacher customers in southern Africa.”

“Clarke Energy is an important Jenbacher gas engine distributor and service provider in Africa and key regions around the world,´ said Darryl Wilson, chief commercial officer of GE Power & Water’s Distributed Power business.

“Given Clarke Energy’s strong service presence in Africa, our decision to sell our South Africa Service Business and sign the new distribution agreements with Clarke Energy combined with their acquisition of Agaricus Trading enables us to even better meet the local demand for our cleaner industrial and municipal on-site power solutions.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .