Waterford's Ormonde Organics acquired by Spanish biomethane firm
The Ormonde Organics facility in Portlaw, Co Waterford. Picture: Ormonde
Waterford biomethane firm Ormonde Organics has been acquired by Spanish firm Heygaz.
Ormonde operates two anaerobic digestion plants at Portlaw, County Waterford and Youghal, County Cork with a total production capacity of 60 GWh annually. The firm, founded in 1993, also has planning permission for a third facility, expected to begin operations at the end of 2025.
Headquartered in Madrid, HeyGaz operates five biomethane plants in four countries and has partnered with French private equity firm InfraVia Capital to further expand across Europe.
It has current production of around 100 GWh of biogas each year. It aims to establish a network of biomethane production plants across Europe via continued greenfield development as well as the acquisition and conversion of operational biogas assets.
The Ormonde Organics management team and CEO Martin Morrissey will remain with the firm. They will join the Heygaz executive team and will continue to have an equity participation in the business. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
Currently, most of the biogas produced by the Portlaw and Youghal plants is used to generate renewable electricity.
Ormonde is developing a facility, in conjunction with Gas Network Ireland, to inject biomethane directly into Ireland’s national gas grid from its Portlaw site, which will allow the commercialisation of biomethane within the integrated EU market.
"We believe joining Heygaz will enable Ormonde Organics to reach its full potential, enabling the company to play a positive role in the development of Ireland's green economy," Martin Morrissey said.
Heygaz Chairman, Fernando Sarasola, said Ormonde has built state-of-the-art assets which operate at the highest industry standards. "The management team has created a strategic position in a very promising market and I am excited to integrate this company into our platform and to start a new phase of growth with the management team. Together with our new partners Martin Morrissey and Michael Murphy, we are ready to seize the substantial growth opportunities in the Irish biomethane sector," he said.
