By Frank Prenesti
Date: Tuesday 22 Dec 2020
LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) said it was investing in Phoenix SAS, a holding company which owns a portfolio of operational wind and solar renewable energy assets in France.
No financial details were disclosed, but TRIG said the investment would represent 2% of its portfolio value.
The French comprises five onshore wind farms in Northern France with a combined capacity of 74MW and four operational solar parks with battery storage located on the islands of Corsica and La Réunion with a combined capacity of 29MW, TRIG said on Tuesday.
"The investment has an attractive return with very little sensitivity to changes in wholesale power prices," TRIG said.
All the Portfolio assets are backed by the French government's Feed-in-Tariff subsidy. The investment is made in the form of mezzanine level bonds which are scheduled to be fully repaid within a period of 12 years, which is within the remaining subsidy life of the Portfolio, it added.
The bonds are subordinated to project finance debt within the portfolio and repaid in priority to all equity distributions. TRIG said it had information and management rights similar to those of a minority equity investor.
"When combined with the investment in East Anglia One, which is expected to complete shortly upon consent from The Crown Estate, and taking into account the proceeds from the recent equity raise by the company, there will be drawings of approximately £40m under TRIG's revolving credit facility," the company said.