Yu Group buys gas customer book for £0.2m

Commercial sector gas, electricity and water supplier Yu Group announced the acquisition of the business customer book of a Midlands-based energy group on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said the acquisition would add around 400 meter points to its current meter portfolio of 14,000.

It was expecting the acquisition to be earnings-enhancing from mid-November, with Yu saying the customer book consisted of gas contracts to small- and medium-sized businesses across Great Britain.

The group said it would hedge the book based on lower gas commodity markets, leading to “attractive” margins.

Its board said the acquired business reported £3m of unaudited revenue for the year ended 31 March, with Yu Group to pay £0.2m in cash for the assets, including an element of consideration based on a discount to the customer receivables balance acquired, net of provision.

“We have already successfully migrated the customers with the acquisition being imminently earnings enhancing with no noticeable additional cost to serve,” said chief executive officer Bobby Kalar.

“Beyond this, there is further value we can provide our new customers with the additional products and services we offer.”

Kalar said that, following the recent successful acquisition and integration of Bristol Energy, the new acquisition demonstrated the firm’s ability to grow.

“We now have a proven template for deals to complement our accelerating organic portfolio.

“We see a number of further opportunities in the market, and combined with our continued significant organic growth, are excited by the future.”

At 1203 GMT, shares in Yu Group were up 4.12% at 88.5p.