It has been recently announced that Irish power organisation, Viridian, is set to be purchased by I Squared Capital, a US-based owner of considerable assets in the renewables industries of India and the US..

The move by I Squared Capital is one which is expected to act as a way for the company to break into the UK’s energy sector, and, sitting at a total value of €1bn, will prove to be a sizeable investment into the UK-based assets, with Viridian’s present, considerable assets crossing both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In total, Viridian presently provides some 20% of domestic energy in Ireland, which is generated through a combination of gas-fired and renewable, wind farms.

As of I Squared Capital’s motives, an expression of consideration has been made as to whether buying into the market with Viridian will prove to be a foothold for breaking into it entirely, with Gautam Bhandari, Partner at I Squared Capital highlighting how the company has been weighing the potential of buying into the market, or pursuing a more organic approach to entering it.

Of course, despite already being a highly competitive market, with a handful of operators presently dominating the UK energy sector, this, to Bautam Bhandari seems only to be perceived as a challenge, with him passing comment that: “There is a need for new contenders in the UK power-market, where customers are looking for solutions other than the Big Six.”

Of course, this is seemingly only the first step in considerable international expansion plans for the company, with plans already nodded to for entering the European market more significantly. This, however is expected to come some time in the future, with the expectations being of about one year before the company would be comfortable with it’s UK-based market entry plans.