Polski
Pre-insulated pipes for sale, heat flowing by barge: a week in the district heating industry
The past week shows that district heating is now one of the hottest investment segments in Europe. In France, appetite for Polish pre-insulated pipe manufacturers is growing, while in the United Kingdom the government is reaching for genuinely unusual transport solutions just to keep more homes warm. Here's what actually happened.
01 · Mergers & Acquisitions
The French buy Poland's leading pre-insulated pipe manufacturer
The Tar Heel Capital fund has sold its 100 percent stake in Radpol Pipes to the French industrial group Elydan [1]. The plant in Prawiedniki-Kolonia near Lublin produces pre-insulated pipe systems supplying, among others, Veolia, Dalkia and Engie — Europe's largest district heating operators. For Elydan, this is already its fourth acquisition in the district heating segment in two years; the group had previously acquired companies in France, Finland and Sweden, so the Polish plant completes the picture and gives it a strong foothold in Central Europe.
The story of THC and Radpol goes back to 2003, when the fund took over the former state-owned company. After the company's debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2007 and THC's exit in 2010, the fund returned in 2020, took control again, and delisted it in 2022. It proved to be a successful comeback: the pipe business doubled its revenue, from PLN 96 million to over PLN 190 million, while exports grew almost tenfold, from PLN 11 million to over PLN 100 million. Along the way, the fund also invested around PLN 20 million in modernizing production, which evidently made the company more attractive in the eyes of the French buyer.
The deal fits into a broader trend. Poland's district heating network requires modernization worth nearly PLN 30 billion, and the European Union plans to allocate over PLN 50 billion a year for this purpose across the whole bloc. It's hardly surprising that foreign industrial players are increasingly choosing to buy ready-made, proven Polish manufacturers rather than build their own production capacity from scratch.
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02 · Public Investment
UK: £90 million and heat flowing down the Thames by barge
While Poland's market is undergoing capital consolidation, across the Channel the UK government is reaching for public money and some genuinely unusual engineering solutions. The UK government has announced a further £90 million tranche of funding for heat networks, benefiting more than 750,000 households [2]. The flagship project of this round is a system for transporting waste heat by electric barges along the Thames. The barges are to travel 25 kilometres a day, carrying hot water through a specially built tunnel under the river to consumers. This project alone received £41 million in funding and is ultimately expected to supply heat to as many as 650,000 homes — more than a million Londoners.
The UK expects the investment to unlock further funding, up to £5 billion in total for London's heat networks, while creating more than 2,000 jobs and reducing the country's dependence on gas. Funding is also going to smaller cities, such as Bradford (£9.7 million) and Solihull (£3.9 million), so this isn't just a flagship project for the capital but a genuine expansion of transmission infrastructure across the whole country. It's a good example of how dense urban development forces creative, non-obvious routing for transmission networks.
Summary
Summary
Both cases — the French acquisition of a Polish pre-insulated pipe manufacturer and the UK's injection of public money into heat networks — show that the modernization of Europe's transmission infrastructure is clearly accelerating, with both private and public capital flowing into it in force. If you want to see the pre-insulated pipe systems, district heating technologies and underground construction solutions driving these investments in person, join us at Targi Rur i Technologii Przesyłowych – Tube Technic Poland. It's the best place to talk to manufacturers, see the latest innovations, and plan your own investments in transmission infrastructure.
Invitation
See the pre-insulated pipes, district heating networks and transmission technologies we're writing about today in person at Targi Rur i Technologii Przesyłowych - Tube Technic Poland. It's a chance to meet pipe system manufacturers, discover the latest in underground construction, and talk about investment in Polish and European heating infrastructure. Exhibitors and visitors welcome — together with the industry, we're building the future of transmission.
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