South Africa: Metier invests in Mertech Marine
Mertech is involved in the recovery and recycling of out of service submarine telecommunications cables.
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Metier, through its Sustainable Capital International Fund II (SCII), has invested significant growth and replacement capital in Mertech Marine, a South African company involved in the recovery and recycling of out of service submarine telecommunications cables.
Mertech has been pioneering the commercial recovery and recycling of out-of-service telecommunication cables since the early 2000s. As the only turnkey provider of recovery and recycling capabilities in the world, Mertech has processed more than 105,000 km of undersea cable and cleared tens of thousands of tonnes of cable from cable depots around the globe.
John Hannig, who led the transaction on behalf of Metier said, “We are very excited about our investment into Mertech, which is a demonstration of a global leading circular economy champion based in Africa. We are partnering with an experienced management team for the next stage of Mertech’s growth at a time when there is increased emphasis on metals recycling and the provision of alternative low-carbon sources of materials, with copper being a fundamental input for the clean energy transition.”
Mertech’s cable dismantling facilities in South Africa and Southeast Asia are the result of years of research and development by its in-house team of engineers.
The facilities ensure that valuable commodities such as copper, steel and plastic are recycled and placed back into the circular economy. The facilities not only process cables recovered by Mertech, but also provide this service to the broader submarine cable industry.
Alwyn du Plessis, CEO of Mertech, said, “We have been fortunate to build long-term partnerships in our journey of growing the business in an exciting, yet challenging environment. We are excited about the Metier team joining us in this new growth chapter. We believe that together we will be able to further the ambitions of the Mertech leadership team beyond what we could imagine today. We have always seen huge opportunity in creating additional value to the recovered materials such as copper, steel and plastics through enhanced downstream processes. With Metier’s investment and support this can now be further unlocked.”
Mertech is the seventh portfolio company of the SCII fund which has a pan-African investment mandate for renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource-efficient infrastructure, and waste management.
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