Shares of gasification solutions firm EQTEC (LON: EQT) are gaining on Monday after its subsidiary, Southport WTV, signed a deal with Rotunda Group and its subsidiary Shankley Biogas to acquire the Southport Hybrid Energy Park project from Rotunda through the acquisition of Shankley Biogas.Â
The RDF-to-energy project includes land at Watts Industrial Estate, Crowland Street, Southport, and Merseyside, where the site has pre-existing Phase 1 permission to transform 80,000 tonnes of waste in a waste management and anaerobic digestion facility, and 9MWe with 2MW of battery storage, exporting 11MWe to the grid annually.
EQTEC, through Southport, will pay an initial consideration of £382,000, from which the existing exclusivity payment of £100,000 will be deducted. It is payable on the achievement of certain conditions related to the project's development milestones within 12 months from the date of the agreement.Â
One of the conditions is that the company is granted a lease concerning the project being sufficient for the development.
There will also be a fixed dividend share in Southport for Rotunda, which will have the right to 20% of distributable profits in Southport WTV. However, this share carries no voting rights or entitlement to dividends in EQTEC.
David Palumbo, CEO of EQTEC, commented: “I'm delighted that EQTEC is taking another RDF-to-energy project in the UK to the next stage of development.Â
“In signing this agreement to acquire the Project SPV for Southport, we are closer to bringing an innovative and sustainable type of waste-to-energy facility to the local community, where we will source excess municipal, commercial and industrial waste from the surrounding area and convert it with our Advanced Gasification Technology into green electricity.”
The news has seen EQTEC shares climb 5.97% to 1.25p so far on Monday. However, its stock price is down over 51% in 2021.
Earlier this month, Kibo Energy PLC (LON: KIBO) rallied 17.4% after acquiring a majority stake in EQTEC’s proposed Billingham waste gasification and power production facility in Teesside, UK.
Should you invest in EQTEC shares?
EQTEC shares are traded on the London stock exchange's AIM market (the alternative investment market), which is the submarket specifically for smaller companies. AIM stocks are attractive to investors as they have tax advantages and smaller companies have the potential to benefit from rapid growth. But are EQT shares the best buy? Our stock market analysts regularly review the market and share their picks for high growth companies