First State Investments Acquires Stake in Anaergia Services' Rialto Bioenergy Facility

NEW YORK, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First State Investments (FSI), a leading global investor in infrastructure, and Anaergia Services LLC (Anaergia), a global technology leader in recovering value from waste and a unit of Anaergia Inc., today announced that First State Investments has acquired a 49% stake in Anaergia's Rialto Bioenergy Facility (RBF). Terms were not disclosed.

The RBF is a resource recovery facility under construction in Rialto, Calif. that will provide organic waste recycling and renewable energy generation service to local government authorities and solid waste haulers, who are under regulatory requirement to divert organic waste from landfills in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to receiving and processing landfill diverted organic waste, the RBF will provide an outlet for reuse of biosolids from wastewater treatment plants. The facility will convert biosolids into a fertilizer product and organic waste into renewable natural gas for use as environmentally friendly and carbon negative transportation fuel.

The RBF acquisition is the second direct infrastructure investment in the U.S. by First State Investments, which manages more than US$8 billion of direct infrastructure investments across North America, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Australia and New Zealand, with a focus on mid-market companies in the transportation, utility and renewables sectors worldwide.

"Waste-to-energy and resource recovery infrastructure provide critical services to municipalities and businesses in California, which has set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030," said John Ma, head of First State Investments' direct infrastructure team in North America. "We're delighted to partner with the highly respected and experienced Anaergia organization on this initial project. Anaergia has a proven global track record in large scale anaerobic digester plants, and we look forward to working together."

"We're pleased to join forces with First State Investments, a significant global infrastructure investor, as we complete construction on this key facility, which will be not only the largest organic waste-to-energy anaerobic digester project in North America, but also a model of efficiently converting additional organic waste such as biosolids into valuable products," said Andrew Benedek, CEO at Anaergia Inc. 

Ma and John DiMarco, director of First State Investments' direct infrastructure team in New York, and their colleagues led the discussions with Anaergia.

"First State Investments has been focused on the waste-to-energy sector for some time as an attractive sector for infrastructure investing," said Danny Latham, partner in FSI's Sydney-based direct infrastructure investments team. "The RBF acquisition is a foundational asset and we expect to have a long and successful relationship with Anaergia to help address environmental issues."

FSI and Anaergia are looking to jointly develop similar projects across the United States.

About Anaergia Inc.

Anaergia Inc. is the global technology leader in recovering value from waste for the municipal, industrial, and agriculture sectors. Through its proven portfolio of proprietary technologies, Anaergia's integrated solutions create value for its customers in the forms of renewable energy, quality fertilizers, and clean water, while dramatically reducing the cost of waste management.

Anaergia's project offices are in Carlsbad, Calif. and its global headquarters are located in Burlington, Ontario. It operates out of eight regional offices and three manufacturing plants. Anaergia's technologies are in use at more than 1,000 resource recovery facilities worldwide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions while creating new revenue sources for its clients.

For more information on Anaergia, please visit www.anaergia.com or contact [email protected].

About First State Investments

Sydney-based First State Investments, known as First Sentier Investors in Australia, is an experienced global asset manager with approximately US$161 billion managed on behalf of investors worldwide as of Dec. 31, 2019. FSI is a leading manager of infrastructure investments with more than US$8 billion in unlisted infrastructure equity investments and has been actively investing in long life infrastructure businesses since 1994. FSI is an experienced owner of transport and utility businesses across the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, UK and Europe.

FSI is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (MUTB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG).

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Important Information
This press release is intended for information only, aimed solely at the media and should not be further distributed to individual and/or corporate investors, and financial advisers and/or distributors. The information included within this document and any supplemental documentation provided should not be copied, reproduced or redistributed without the prior written consent of First State Investments.

SOURCE First State Investments