Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust inks deal to purchase 119.5MW subsidised solar portfolio as UK investor expands into French market
British clean energy investor Octopus Renewables continues to sweep up solar assets across Europe, with the firm's Infrastructure Trust today having inked a deal to purchase 14 subsidised solar plants in France with a total installed capacity of 119.5MW.
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) today announced it has signed a deal to snap up the portfolio for €58.9m from a minority investor and a renewable fund backed by Samsung Securities.
All of the purchased plants - which range in size from 4.6MW to 12GW - benefit from a feed-in-tariff granted in France's 2011 renewables tender, and have an average of 12.7 years remaining under the subsidy programme, according to ORIT.
The deal means ORIT has committed three quarters of the funds it raised at its initial public offering last December, which raised gross proceeds of £350m, said ORIT chairman Phil Austin.
"With this acquisition we have now committed around 75 per cent of the funds raised at IPO and have opened up a third market for ORIT, marking a further step towards building a diversified portfolio of renewable energy assets," Austin said. "It is particularly pleasing that the Octopus Renewables team have been able to continue originating and transacting on high quality deal flow throughout the Covid crisis."
Octopus Renewables secured the acquisition on behalf of ORIT. Both companies form part of the London-based Octopus Group, alongside green power supplier Octopus Energy and several investment and real estate arms.
Chris Graydon, investment director at Octopus Renewables, said the firm had long eyed the French market as having "favourable conditions" for growth and investment. "Octopus Renewables already has a strong presence in France and so were delighted to be able to secure this acquisition for ORIT," he said. "It builds on our ambition to accelerate the clean energy transition and create a legacy for the next generation to mitigate the effects of climate change."
The deal comes less than a fortnight after Octopus Renewables revealed that it had expanded its UK portfolio with the purchase of 9.1MW of residential rooftop solar assets.