Ludgate Environmental Fund leads €8.1m Terra Nova investment

22 December 2009

UK cleantech investor Ludgate Environmental Fund has led an €8.1m funding round in French electrical components recycling business Terra Nova, investing €3m for a 25 per cent shareholding in the company. Other investors included Aurinvest, who put up €2.5m, the Lewis Group, who invested €1.3m, BNP Private Equity, who invested €0.8m, and Finorpa, who injected €0.5m.

Terra Nova said that the funding will be used to construct a printed circuit board treatment and recycling plant at Isbergues in northern France. The company was set up to develop a recycling system for printed circuit boards, which are difficult to dispose of and can be hazardous to the environment.

Nick Pople, director, Ludgate Investments said, ‘We are delighted to be investing in an important area of waste treatment that is addressing the growing concern of how to safely recycle printed circuit boards and diminish their environmental impact.

‘This will also help address the current problem of electronic waste being exported to the developing world where they are often recycled in a dangerous and environmentally-damaging manner,’ he added.

Terra Nova has commenced construction of a 30,000 tonnes per annum pyrolysis plant to pre-treat printed circuit boards for the major metal smelters. Terra Nova has been awarded their Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) consent. Plant construction has already commenced and it is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2011.

John Shakeshaft, chairman, Ludgate Environmental Fund, said, ‘We see there is an exciting market for Terra Nova to address. We look forward to working actively with the investment consortium and the company’s experienced management team to encourage the growth of the business.’

Ludgate is an AIM-listed investment company that specialises in environmental and cleantech company investments. The firm recently invested £5m in UK waste and renewable energy company New Earth Solutions.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: energy efficiency

This story was published on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Europe, deals, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply