Bluefield Solar, a UK-focused income fund that invests primarily in solar assets, is pleased to announce that the Company has acquired Bradenstoke Solar Park Limited, an operational 70 megawatt peak (‘MWp’) ground mounted solar photovoltaic (‘PV’) plant. Unless otherwise noted herein, the information provided in this announcement and any asset valuations underlying such information is unaudited.
On 8 January 2021, the Company completed the acquisition of the plant for a total cash consideration of £89.0 million. The Company will receive the economic benefit of all cash flows from the plant from 1 April 2020.
The plant, which covers a 213 acre site and is located on a former RAF airbase in Wiltshire, has been operational since March 2015 and is accredited under the Renewable Obligation Certificate (‘ROC’) regime with a tariff of 1.4 ROCs.
The acquisition has been financed using the Company’s revolving credit facility which, as well as being extended to September 2022 (with an option to extend to September 2023), has also been increased, through an accordion mechanism, to £100.0 million. The margin on the facility remains at LIBOR + 2.00%.
Following the transaction, the Company’s total outstanding debt has increased to £370.4 million and the total installed capacity of its portfolio has grown to 612 MWp, to date all of which comprises UK solar assets with high levels of government backed revenue streams paid in sterling.
Using the Company’s 30 September 2020 unaudited net asset value (‘NAV’) of £424.3 million as a reference and including the Company’s over-subscribed equity raise of £45.0 million in November 2020, the leverage level of the Company is circa 44% of Gross Asset Value.
John Rennocks, Chairman of Bluefield Solar, said: “Following the high quality 64 MWp portfolio of ROC accredited UK solar assets that we acquired in August 2020, the purchase of Bradenstoke is further evidence of our ability to source attractive assets with high levels of regulated revenues. This acquisition is immediately accretive to earnings and further underpins our projected results and dividends for the current financial year ending in June 2021 and beyond. The Board and our Investment Adviser continue to carefully assess a strong pipeline of opportunities across both primary and secondary markets.”
