Acquisition of 47.5 MWp UK-based solar and wind portfolio

Bluefield Solar (LON: BSIF), the UK income fund focused on acquiring and managing UK-based renewable energy and storage assets to provide growing dividends for its shareholders whilst furthering the decarbonisation of the energy system, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of a 47.5 megawatt peak ('MWp') operational solar and wind portfolio from Good Energy Group PLC (AIM: GOOD).

The portfolio has been acquired for an initial equity consideration of £16.4 million rising to a total of up to £24.5 million, subject to a series of due diligence milestones being met within the next 4-6 weeks. The acquisition contains £39.1 million of long term portfolio debt provided by Gravis.

Bluefield Solar will receive the economic benefit, from 1 July 2021, of all cashflows from the portfolio which has been acquired using funds from the Company's Revolving Credit Facility ("RCF").

The portfolio consists of six ground mounted solar photovoltaic ('PV') plants with a total installed capacity of 30.1 MWp and two wind farms with a total installed capacity of 17.4 MWp.  All the solar sites, as well as one of the wind assets, are located in South West England, whilst the second wind site is located in North England.

Of the solar projects, five are accredited under the feed-in-tariff ('FIT') regime and one of the projects is accredited under the Renewable Obligation Certificate ('ROC') regime with a tariff of 1.4 ROCs. Both of the wind farms are accredited under the ROC regime, being 1 ROC and 0.9 ROCs respectively.  In the period 2021 to 2034, the proportion of regulated revenues from this portfolio is projected to be approximately 65%. 

Following the acquisition, the Company's total outstanding debt has increased to £399.9 million and the total installed capacity of its portfolio has grown to 673MWp.  The leverage level of the Company has increased from 37% to circa 41% of Gross Asset Value ('GAV').

John Rennocks, Chairman of Bluefield Solar, said: "We are delighted to have acquired this high-quality portfolio of operating assets from Good Energy. Not only does this acquisition mark our second purchase of operational wind assets within the space of six months, but it also adds a very attractive portfolio of solar assets with a high proportion of regulated revenues to the Company's significant existing portfolio. Furthermore, the acquisition underpins the Board's confidence in delivering our FY 2021/22 target dividend of 8.12pps (FY 2020/21: 8.00pps). Finally, the Board and our Investment Adviser continue to carefully assess a strong pipeline of diverse opportunities across both primary and secondary markets."