Corporate venturing units Hafslund Venture and Eidsiva Vekst signed an agreement on 22nd December to merge their portfolios and investment activities, and will combine their future activities under Energy Future Invest (EFI), an additional existing corporate venturing fund owned by Eidsiva.
Hafslund Venture is operated by Norwegian power company Hafslund. Hafslund operates the power grid and district heating in Norways capital, Oslo, and the city of Oslo holds a majority stake in the business. Finland-based energy company Fortum owns a one third stake.
Eidsiva Vekst (Vekst meaning growth) represents Eidsiva, Norway’s largest producer, distributor and trader of energy, all of which is generated from hydroelectric plants. Eidsiva is the product of a series of mergers in the early part of last decade, including the purchase of Haflsund’s shares in energy companies Mjøskraft and Mjøskraft Strøm in 2005.
Each company will take a half stake in EFI going forward, and the new entity will be led by Tore Schiøtz, ex-senior vice president at Hafslund and head of Hafslund Venture.
Christian Berg, chief executive officer of Hafslund, said: "We are proud to bring a strong capital management environment – which has delivered excellent results over the last ten years – on in a new context together with Eidsiva, with which we have a good and long lasting relationship."
The companies have stated that the reasoning behind the merger was to create a more dynamic investment environment for clean technology in the region over the long term. Founded in 2001, EFI already has an eight-strong portfolio concentrated on clean energy in the Scandinavia region.
However, the initial press release mentioned EFI going forward with a combined portfolio of 12. Since Eisdiva Vekst and Hafslund Venture’s combined portfolios would appear to be far larger, and do not overlap with EFI’s prior investments, it is unclear as to which businesses have been transferred. EFI was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.