Previous Page
122
Transactions
OCTOBER 2013
BaLcaS LIMItEd In £1.2 MILLIon PRoJEct In ScotLand FUndEd BY GREEn InvEStMEnt BanK
the Equitix managed fund, Energy Saving Investments (ESI), in which the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) is a cornerstone investor, has announced an investment of £576,733 for the financing of the installation of a biomass boiler at tomatin distillery near Inverness.
This £1.2 million investment, GIB's first in Scotland, mobilises a further £600,274 of investment from the Equitix Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF). The investment is being made by ESI in partnership with Balcas Limited, a leading UK manufacturer of wood pellet biomass.
The ESI fund forms part of GIB's allocation of investment into one of its priority sectors, energy efficiency. GIB awarded the competitive fund mandate to Equitix to invest £50 million, matched by private investors, to drive investment in small-scale low carbon infrastructure requiring less than £30 million of financing. Equitix has also established EEEF to make investments into the energy efficiency sector, including as co-investors alongside ESI.
The boiler installation at Tomatin Distillery, located 16 miles south of Inverness, produces steam utilised in the production of whisky. The boiler, manufactured by a leading European manufacturer, replaces a high maintenance, inefficient oil fired boiler. The new boiler will replace 80% of the heat load usually generated by the oil fired boiler.
Shaun Kingsbury, UK Green Investment Bank chief executive officer said: "I am pleased to be able to announce our first Scottish investment. As well as significant emission reductions, the project will provide a boost to the local economy. We have a strong pipeline of investments in Scotland and hope to be able to announce further investments in Scottish distilleries, as well as other projects, very soon.” LM
FoRvEI acqUIRES ItaLIan SoLaR PLant caLaBRIa
ForvEI, the multishareholder vehicle, has completed the acquisition of calabria Solar, at 24MW one of the ten largest solar plants in Italy, from talesun Solar Switzerland aG (“talesun”) a Swiss subsidiary of Zonghli talesun Solar co Ltd, the leading chinese solar panel manufacturer, for a total enterprise value of circa € 53 million.
ForVEI is a joint venture comprising VEI Green , CDC Infrastructure, Foresight Solar VCT, Quercus Renewable Energy and Adenium Solar Energy.
This acquisition follows ForVEI’s innovative lease-back financing acquisition of the OPDE portfolio in 2011, which at that time represented the largest lease financing of PV plants arranged by a single financial institution in Italy.
Project financing has been granted by Banca IMI and UniCredit.
Federico Giannandrea, partner of Foresight Group and leader of the Italian Solar Team declared: "We are very satisfied at completing the significant acquisition of Calabria Solar to enhance ForVEI’s portfolio of Solar PV Assets. Thanks to this operation, ForVEI now handles a portfolio of over 54MW with a medium average annual return in the teens.” LM
Calabria
Balcas Limited