Foresight Solar Fund Limited Acquisition of five UK solar assets (5441L)
April 20 2018 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMFSFL
RNS Number : 5441L
Foresight Solar Fund Limited
20 April 2018
Foresight Solar Fund Limited
Acquisition of five UK solar assets
Foresight Solar Fund Limited ("Foresight Solar" or "the
Company") is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 100% interest
in a portfolio of five operational solar parks located in the UK
with a total installed capacity of 53.3 MW (the "Acquisition
Portfolio").
The assets in the Acquisition Portfolio include:
-- Verwood (Dorset, 20.7MW), commissioned in May 2015
and received Renewables Obligation Certificate ("ROC")
accreditation of 1.4ROCs/MWh;
-- Park Farm (Leicestershire, 13.2MW), commissioned
in July 2015 and received ROC accreditation of 1.4ROCs/MWh;
-- Coombeshead (Devon, 9.8MW), commissioned in August
2015 and received ROC accreditation of 1.4ROCs/MWh;
-- Sawmills (Devon, 6.6MW), commissioned in September
2015 and received ROC accreditation of 1.4ROCs/MWh;
and
-- Yardwall (Somerset, 3.0MW), commissioned in September
2015 and received Feed-in-Tariff ("FiT") accreditation.
The Company has acquired the economic benefit of all project
cash flows from 1 January 2018. The acquisition cost of the
Company's equity investment in the solar portfolio will be GBP36.6
million, including transaction costs and approximately GBP4.2
million of cash balances.
The acquisition has been funded through the Company's existing
revolving credit facilities provided by Santander Global Corporate
Banking. In addition, the Company has agreed a GBP10 million
facility extension of the revolving credit facility entered into in
February 2017 at the prevailing rate of LIBOR + 2%.
The Acquisition Portfolio also includes a 0.5MW onshore wind
asset commissioned in December 2014 and accredited under the FiT
scheme which was a necessary part of the transaction. It is the
intention of the Company to hold this asset in the portfolio on a
temporary basis until it can be sold. The onshore wind asset
represents an immaterial part of the investment portfolio,
representing less than 1% of the Company's NAV, as stated at 31
December 2017.
The Acquisition Portfolio, including the onshore wind asset,
benefits from a long-term, fully amortising debt facility provided
by Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions, an existing
lender to the Company investment portfolio. The balance outstanding
at the date of acquisition is GBP31.8 million. The debt facility
has a remaining tenure of 16 years and includes an inflation-linked
and a fixed-rate tranche, representing 85% and 15%, respectively,
of the total facility amount.
Following this acquisition the Company's total outstanding debt
will be GBP276.2 million, comprising GBP181.2 million of long-term
facilities and GBP95.0 million of revolving credit facilities.
After this acquisition the Company's portfolio consists of 27
solar assets with a net installed capacity of approximately 674 MW,
including three Australian assets currently under construction. The
fourth Australian asset, Longreach, delivered its initial
electricity export to the grid on schedule in March 2018.
Foresight Solar's portfolio average installed capacity per asset
of 24MW is expected to deliver efficiencies of scale in terms of
ongoing operational costs.
Commenting on the acquisition, Alex Ohlsson, Chairman of the
Company, said:
"This acquisition further demonstrates the Investment Manager's
ability to identify and secure quality investments at attractive
valuations. This acquisition will further improve the asset
diversification and size of our UK portfolio and we also expect it
to enhance the Company's dividend cover.
"This acquisition is part of the pipeline we communicated in our
latest Annual Report (published 22 February 2018) and is in line
with our prudent growth strategy."
For further information, please contact:
Foresight Group +44 (0)20 3763 6951
Joanna Andrews
InstitutionalIR@ForesightGroup.eu@ForesightGroup.eu
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited +44 (0)20 7710 7600
Mark Bloomfield
Neil Winward
Tunga Chigovanyika
Citigate Dewe Rogerson +44 (0)20 7638 9571
Louise Mason-Rutherford
Nick Hayns
Eleni Menikou
Elizabeth Kittle
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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