Foresight Solar Fund Limited Sale of stake in Spanish portfolio (6090T)
November 16 2023 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMFSFL
RNS Number : 6090T
Foresight Solar Fund Limited
16 November 2023
16 November 2023
Foresight Solar Fund Limited
(the "Company", "Foresight Solar" or "FSFL")
Sale of stake in Spanish portfolio
Foresight Solar, a sustainability-focused fund investing in
solar and battery storage assets in the UK and internationally,
sold a 50% stake in its Lorca portfolio in Spain. A specialist
Luxembourg-based fund advised by EB-Sustainable Investment
Management (EB-SIM), a subsidiary of Evangelische Bank, paid
EUR26.9 million for the assets, a 21% premium to their third
quarter holding value. This represents an exit IRR of 12.1% on
funds invested to date in the stake sold.
Proceeds from the transaction will be fully used to pay down the
Company's variable rate revolving credit facility further, lowering
gearing and reducing interest expense. The Investment Manager is
advancing conversations to finalise the divestment of the announced
c.200MW of operational assets and the process will continue into
2024.
Lorca is a 99MW subsidy-free portfolio that includes three
assets: Las Salinas (30MW), Los Llanos (49MW) and Los Picos (20MW).
Purchased at the ready-to-build stage three years ago, Foresight
Solar took the projects through construction, realising a 2 pence
per share NAV uplift when they became operational in 2022.
The portfolio has a 10-year fixed price power purchase agreement
(PPA) with Statkraft, one of Europe's largest renewable energy
providers. Signed in 2021, the PPA provides long-term revenue
visibility for approximately 70% of the assets' annual production
and contributes to dividend cover. In the nine months to September
2023, the sites generated 138GWh of electricity.
Alexander Ohlsson, Chair of Foresight Solar, said: "After a
comprehensive analysis of our portfolio, we concluded these assets
were the ideal option to start our divestment process. This deal
clearly exemplifies our strategy: we acquired Lorca at the
ready-to-build stage and capitalised on the Investment Manager's
expertise to construct the assets and bring them to operations,
realising the full financial upside for the Company. We are now
selling a stake at a premium to crystallise value and recycle
capital into other options while maintaining exposure to an asset
that will continue to deliver long-term revenues and contribute to
dividend cover."
Dr Bernhard Graeber, Managing Director and Head of Alternative
Assets at EB-SIM, said: "Spain enjoys some of the highest
irradiation levels in Europe, and the Lorca portfolio is
operationally set up to maximise electricity production. The
revenue visibility from the PPA makes it even more appealing. Now
that we are well established in Central Europe, we are increasingly
turning our attention to Southern European countries and are glad
to have found the right partner in Foresight Solar."
EB-Sustainable Investment Management GmbH (EB-SIM) is a leading
asset manager for sustainable investments. The Kassel-based company
is a subsidiary of Evangelische Bank (EB). For more than 30 years,
values-based asset management has been one of EB's core businesses
and was spun off into EB-SIM as an independent division in December
2018. EB-SIM employs over 60 people and manages EUR5.3 billion in
assets. It offers institutional and, via wholesale distribution,
private clients exclusively sustainable investments in equity, bond
and multi-asset strategies, as well as private debt and real
assets. Its investment strategies are consistently aligned with the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and the
climate targets of the European Union.
For further information, please contact:
Foresight Group
Matheus Fierro
(fsflir@foresightgroup.eu) +44 (0)20 3911 2318
Jefferies International Limited
Gaudi Le Roux
Harry Randall +44 (0)20 7029 8000
Singer Capital Markets
Robert Peel
Alaina Wong +44 (0)20 7496 3000
Powerscourt
Justin Griffiths
Gilly Lock +44 (0)20 7250 1446
EB-SIM
Christiane Plach +49 (0) 175 366 1113
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