Lighthouse Industries buys five energy firms after $488m raise

Symphony-backed Lighthouse Industries has bought five energy infrastructure companies as it looks to position itself as a clean energy infrastructure leader.

Lighthouse is keen to be a major player in rolling out net zero infrastructure.

Lighthouse Industries has bought five energy infrastructure companies after parent company Symphony closed off a $488m Series A financing round in recent months.

Leading construction and infrastructure lawyer Kathryn Walker, formerly of Piper Alderman, has also joined Lighthouse as general counsel.

Symphony, headed by chairman Graham Bradley and chief executive Steven Butler, raised a reported $300m from Blackstone in July this year, which was topped up with a $188m senior debt facility from the Commonwealth bank.

The duo of Bradley and Butler sold mobile phone tower business Stilmark to Canadian investor OMERS in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, and are now looking to position themselves as the infrastructure company of choice as the grid is beefed up to meet the nation’s net zero ambitions.

Lighthouse has now announced the purchase of five companies, including Cowell Electric, Clutch and RJE Global in South Australia, Catalpa in Western Australia, and Energy 3 in New Zealand.

Kain Lawyers was legal adviser to Symphony and Lighthouse on the transactions.

Catalpa, founded by Irish brothers Fergus and Barry O’Neill, reportedly turned over $44m in the 2022 financial year on the back of projects in the mining sector and Project Energy Connect which is building the interconnector between South Australia and New Zealand.

Cowell Electric has long been a successful operator in regional South Australia, and was acquired by engineering company Ahrens in 2019.

Lighthouse chief executive Richard Phillips said in a statement that the new companies had built out its ability to offer end to end solutions in the energy and grid sectors.

“We are thrilled to integrate these five strategic businesses into our portfolio of well-established, highly regarded specialist energy infrastructure services company,’’ he said.

“Together we now possess the capability to plan, build and maintain the critical infrastructure necessary to power our clean energy future.’’

Lighthouse said its capabilities now covered wind resource assessments, strategic grid advisory, engineering and design, sovereign manufacturing, construction, commissioning and maintenance.

The company also said it now employs more than 1000 people across 20 locations across Australia and New Zealand.

RJE Global chief executive Robin Johnson said the new ownership would allow his company to scale faster and contribute more to the energy transition.

Originally published as Lighthouse Industries buys five energy firms after $488m raise