Clarke Energy Acquires GE's Jenbacher Gas Engines South African Service Business and Agaricus Trading

LIVERPOOL, England, November 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

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 acquires GE Jenbacher gas engines Service Business in South Africa.
• Existing customers with GE maintenance contracts will be transferred to Clarke Energy.
• Clarke Energy acquires Agaricus Trading Pty Ltd, the previous sales representative for Jenbacher gas engines in South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.
• Clarke Energy is granted distribution and service provider status for GE's Jenbacher gas engines in South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

These two key strategic 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 its successful model of providing added value to the Jenbacher product platform through engineering and installation of gas-fuelled power plants and delivering the highest levels of aftersales support.

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

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.

Jamie Clarke, CEO of Clarke Energy: '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.'

Notes to Editor

Clarke Energy

Clarke Energy was established in 1989 in the UK as an engine service provider. Since this time it has grown strongly focusing on engineering, installation and maintenance of gas-fuelled power plants. These power plants typically range in size from 0.3-50MW and Clarke Energy has over 3,600 megawatts of Jenbacher gas engines across 13 countries. Clarke Energy recently recorded record profits and a turnover of £207million and now employs in excess of 900 people worldwide. In 2012 ECI Partners acquired a minority stake in Clarke Energy to support its global expansion plans.

Clarke Energy is an authorised distributor and service provider for GE's Jenbacher gas engines.

Clarke Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Clarke Energy has had a long history in Sub-Saharan Africa with its first sale into Nigeria in 2002 and with an office opening in Apapa, Lagos in 2005. Clarke Energy has since installed over 230MW of gas fuelled power plants on the back of the expansion of Nigeria's domestic gas supplies. Since inception, Clarke Energy's Nigerian operations have expanded and moved to Ikeja GRA, opening a new branch office in Port Harcourt in 2012.

Clarke Energy energy's East African operations are based in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

In Nigeria, Clarke Energy has installed power plants for a large number of major industrial facilities including Diageo (Guinness Ogba and Benin breweries), PZ Cousins, GlaxoSmithKline, Oando, Dunlop and Flour Mills of Nigeria.

These power plants are backed-up and supported by teams of African service engineers who have been trained in Austria and the UK to the highest standards.

In 2013 Clarke Energy sold the first biogas engines to a Kenyan anaerobic digestion plant, the first to be installed in sub-Saharan Africa.

Clarke Energy's policy of localisation means the employment of local nationals at all levels of the business and ensures development of in-country skills and knowledge.

Connect with Clarke Energy

http://www.clarke-energy.com
http://www.linkedin.com/company/clarke-energy
http://www.twitter.com/ClarkeEnergy
http://www.facebook.com/ClarkeEnergy 

For More Information Contact

Alex Marshall, Clarke Energy
alex.marshall@clarke-energy.com