Blackstone and Rivean Capital have completed the previously announced acquisition of Esdec Solar Group B.V., the global market leader in rooftop solar mounting systems.

Headquartered in Deventer, Netherlands, Esdec develops and supplies professional solar rooftop mounting solutions for the residential, commercial, and industrial markets. Since being founded in 2004, close to 100 million solar panels have been installed on Esdec Solar Group mounting structures, and in 2022 the Group secured more than 3.5 Gigawatts on residential, commercial, and industrial rooftops all over the world.

Esdec represents an attractive investment opportunity due to its leading market positioning, underpinned by a differentiated product portfolio combined with the increasing demand for the adoption of rooftop solar.

The investment is made on behalf of funds managed by Blackstone Energy Partners and Blackstone private equity, and Rivean Capital’s Special Opportunity Fund and Fund VI.  Rivean first invested in Esdec in 2018. As part of this transaction, Rivean is realising its original investment, and re-investing into Esdec from both a newly raised continuation fund and its latest flagship fund.

Jürgen Pinker, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “Esdec is at the forefront of the energy transition – one of the highest-conviction investment themes globally for Blackstone Energy Partners and our firm as a whole. We look forward to working with our partners Rivean and Esdec’s management team to further grow the business to meet the huge and growing demand for rooftop solar, in both existing and new markets.

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“This investment reinforces Blackstone’s ongoing commitment to the Netherlands where we have deployed approximately €9 billion since 2004.”

David Foley, Global Head of Blackstone Energy Partners, added: “As a leading investor in the energy transition, we proactively seek out companies with strong, entrepreneurial management that are well-positioned to benefit from this megatrend and help them fully capitalize on the growth opportunities available to them, thereby accelerating the energy transition and providing cleaner, more reliable and affordable energy to consumers worldwide.  The closing of our investment in Esdec follows a number of significant equity investments in energy transition and climate solutions by Blackstone earlier this year, including Champlain Hudson Power Express, Xpansiv and Geosyntec.”

Maurits Boomsma, Senior Partner at Rivean Capital said: “At the core of Rivean’s investment philosophy, we have backed a strong and ambitious management team on its journey from a regional champion to a global market leader. We are very much looking forward to supporting the Esdec team, together with Blackstone, during its next phase of accelerated growth, helping facilitate the global energy transition through innovation.”

Stijn Vos, CEO of Esdec commented: “To successfully support and enable sustainable solar energy for future generations, we continuously need to focus on further developing and growing our business. I am excited to enter the next stage of development of our company with both Rivean and Blackstone as equally important strategic shareholders.

“Both shareholders bring their own specific set of expertise, a combination of deep market knowledge, a local-for-local approach, while using scale and expertise to drive economic growth and make a positive impact. Together with the management board I look forward to leveraging both Blackstone and Rivean’s capabilities, operational expertise, and commitment to sustainability to further strengthen our position and empower our customers to be solar heroes.”