The Chinese financial investor Silk Road Fund is seeking a participation in the German firm EEW Energy from Waste. Beijing Enterprises Holdings Limited (BEHL), the sole owner of EEW since March, and Silk Road made the announcement last week. The three companies signed a "cooperation framework agreement", with both the Chinese prime minister Li Keqiang and German chancellor Angela Merkel in attendance, during the latter’s visit to China.
Neither BEHL's nor the Silk Road Fund's press release regarding the possible investment in EEW contain many details, however. The investment fund did not reveal how many shares it seeks to acquire in EEW through the cooperation agreement, nor how much it is offering for them. BEHL has not as yet responded to an EUWID enquiry to the agreement.
The press releases only stated that Silk Road was planning to make equity investments in EEW and work together with relevant partners to “support the solid waste treatment business in China, Germany and other parts of Europe", notably in the Netherlands and Poland. Furthermore, Silk Road Fund said in its statement that it was supporting the introduction of the “cutting-edge technologies and managerial expertise to China, so as to enhance the operational efficiency of China’s solid waste treatment industry and promote the development of the country’s circular economy”.
It is no secret that BEHL had been seeking an investment partner for EEW, revealing in a transaction press release shortly after acquiring EEW that it planned to sell off parts of the waste incineration specialist at a later date. At the time, the Chinese utility had said such a deal would only be undertaken if BEHL remained the largest single shareholder in the German wte firm.
In the 13/2016 print edition of EUWID Recycling and Waste Management, it was erroneously stated that Beijing Enterprises Holding Limited had sold a part of EEW Energy from Waste to the Silk Road investment fund rather than signing a cooperation framework agreement as reported here. We apologise for the error.