Macquarie is to focus on the residential metering sector following the divestment of Cortex Metering Solutions (CMS), its industrial and commercial (I&C) smart meter portfolio, to Energy Assets Group.
CMS currently has over 600,000 meters rented to over 80 energy suppliers throughout Great Britain, with Macquarie having entered into the I&C market in 2006, three years after it established its metering business.
It now has a portfolio of over 11 million meters, with 5.4 million of these being smart meters in the residential sector, meaning over one in six homes in GB have a Macquarie meter.
Neil Denley, managing director for Macquarie Specialised and Asset Finance in EMEA, said: “The sale of part of our I&C portfolio will allow us to focus on our residential metering business – where we have an important role to play in helping meet our customers’ ambitious smart meter rollout targets.”
Energy Assets, meanwhile, is an independent I&C multi-utility metering and data services business. It was chosen to take on the portfolio after a competitive process, according to Denley, with its “longstanding experience” and “impressive track record” key reasons for its selection.
The acquisition of CMS is set to diversify Energy Asset’s metering portfolio, with this aligning with its strategy of being a leader in technologies and services that support energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in the I&C sector.
Smart meter installations in the UK have begun to rebound following the winter lockdown, which restricted engineers from visiting homes and businesses for non-essential work. They jumped 34% month-on-month according to ElectraLink, with 219,000 installations recorded in March 2021.
