Quinbrook sells Flexitricity to Drax in £42m deal for flexibility

Quinbrook has reached an agreement to sell the UK flexibility specialist Flexitricity to Drax Smart Generation HoldCo Limited, a subsidiary of Drax Group plc, for total expected proceeds of about £42 million (enterprise value £36m plus an estimated £6m net working capital and cash adjustment). The deal remains subject to Government clearance under the National Security and Investment Act, with Ofgem already completing its assessment and raising no adverse findings.

The sale caps a six-year growth phase after Quinbrook bought the business in 2020. Under Quinbrook’s ownership, Flexitricity expanded its contracted portfolio from roughly 540 MW to around 1.3 GW of distributed flexible capacity, adding battery storage, industrial demand-response agreements and flexible generation. The company operates a 24/7 control room in Edinburgh and blends real-time trading with data-science optimisation to stack value across multiple markets.

Quinbrook’s chief executive Brian Restall and Managing Director UK Keith Gains framed the move as a planned exit after a period of scaling and product development. They noted the business' role supporting system operators as older thermal capacity retires and as the UK pursues tighter clean-power and net-zero targets. Quinbrook emphasised that it retained related flexible-generation operator Velox Power, which continues to be held and developed separately.

Flexitricity’s CEO Andy Lowe — who joined the company’s leadership team in 2022 — described the acquisition by Drax as a route to accelerate market access and customer rollout for Flexitricity’s consumer-facing and commercial flexibility initiatives. The business, founded in 2004, employs more than 85 people across operations, engineering, trading, sales and finance and has woven ESG and workforce training into its operations.

For Drax, the purchase complements its existing generation and system-balancing ambitions by adding a sizable portfolio of flexible distributed resources and a technology-led trading platform. Market analysts note the strategic logic: system operators and suppliers are increasingly valuing short-duration flexibility and aggregated demand response as the UK moves away from large synchronous plant. Industry estimates suggest the value pool for aggregated flexibility in Britain could run into hundreds of millions annually as the capacity mix changes and spot volatility rises.

The transaction was advised financially by Jefferies, while legal counsel for Quinbrook was provided by DLA Piper. Completion is conditioned on the remaining regulatory approvals and customary closing adjustments. Management and shareholders expect the transfer to unlock fresh investment from Drax into product roll‑out and integration while Quinbrook retains ownership of complementary assets and platforms that support its broader energy-transition portfolio.