Private Equity News & Analysis

Clessidra invests in Welsh renewables

The Italian buyout firm headed by Claudio Sposito, the former chief executive of Fininvest, Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company, has made its first investment outside Italy.

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Italian buyout firm Clessidra Capital Partners has bought a third of Global Wood Holding, according to someone close to the company.

Claudio Sposito:
Welsh renewables

Global Wood owns Prenergy Power, which received permission to build the 350MW plant in Port Talbot late last year which will become the world’s largest woodchip power plant. The project will provide two thirds of Wales’ renewable energy by 2010 and will cost £350 million ($682 million; €469.8 million) to build.

Clessidra raised an €820 million ($1.19 billion) fund in 2005. Its chairman and chief executive Claudio Sposito was formerly chief executive of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest.

The deal is the firm’s first investment outside Italy.