New acquisition takes Bluefield’s portfolio to 813MWp

The UK income fund, Bluefield Solar, has acquired a 46.4MWp solar portfolio from the North American firm specialising in real assets, Fengate Asset Management, increasing its portfolio to 813MWp.

The solar portfolio consists of the 3.9MWp Raventhorpe plant in Scunthorpe, a 7.1MWp facility called Roanhead located in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and two ground mounted solar photovoltaic plants.

Both Raventhorpe and Roanhead are accredited under the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) regime with a tariff of 1.4 ROCs. The proportion of contracted and regulated revenues from the solar portfolio is predicted at approximately 60% between 2022 and 2035.

The portfolio has an enterprise value of £56 million, which includes all cashflows from May this year. Also included in the portfolio is a £27.3 million of long-term amortising debt provided by the financial services group, Macquarie.

“We are delighted to have acquired this high-quality portfolio of operating assets from Fengate Asset Management. The portfolio includes a high proportion of contracted and regulated revenues, and so represents a natural complement to the Company’s significant development pipeline of new build solar and storage projects. Furthermore, the acquisition underpins the Board’s confidence in delivering our FY 2022/23 target dividend of not less than 8.40pps (FY 2021/22: 8.12pps),” commented chairman of Bluefield Solar, John Scott.

Following the acquisition the company’s total outstanding debt has increased to £537 million, which includes the Revolving Credit and Accordion Facility drawings pf £120 million. Similarly, Bluefield’s gross asset value has now increased from 37% to roughly 40%.

The announcement follows Bluefield gaining planning consent for four projects with a capacity of nearly 200MW in Northumberland and Oxfordshire earlier in December.