Glennmont Partners has agreed to divest a portfolio of five onshore wind farms in north-eastern and western France, totalling installed capacity of 59.5MW, to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Falck Renewables SpA, a listed company on the Italian stock exchange. The consideration for the sale is €37m, with the purchaser stepping into the existing project debt facilities in place.
The five onshore windfarms, Bois Ballay (12.5MW), Les Coudrays (10MW), Mazeray (12.5MW), Eol Team (12MW), and Noyales (12.5MW), commenced operations between 2006 and 2013. The divestment is expected to close in early 2019.
Glennmont Partners is one of Europe’s largest fund managers focusing exclusively on investment in clean energy infrastructure. The sale continues to demonstrate the successful divestment of Glennmont’s Clean Energy Fund Europe I (“Fund”), which was fully invested in 14 projects across five geographies.
The Fund combined investments in onshore wind, solar PV and bioenergy markets. It follows the recent announcement of the sale of the Fund’s Portuguese solar PV projects to Cubico Sustainable Investments in September and Glennmont’s acquisition of Project Goudelancourt in October, a 16.8MW wind farm located in Northern France. The next divestments to come for the Fund include French solar, Italian wind and solar, and UK and Irish wind and biomass.
Peter Dickson, a Founding Partner of Glennmont Partners, said: “We are very encouraged by this deal and by how attractive our French assets have proved to be for investors seeking a stable, yielding and financially de-risked power plant. Over the past 10 years, Glennmont has been actively compiling a very large mixed renewable energy portfolio. Investors can look forward to more of the same in 2019, both in France and further afield.”
Toni Volpe, Falck Renewables CEO, said: “This acquisition provides needed solidity to our presence in France, one of the most attractive markets in which we operate. We will reach almost 100MW installed in France, with a portfolio of assets and turbine technologies on which we can build further in terms of industrial optimization and long-term value extraction.”
