Bluefield European Solar aims to raise £142m in LSE listing

Solar energy investment fund Bluefield European Solar unveiled plans to raise a minimum of €200m (£142m) through a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The company, which is looking to acquire solar assets in a number of Eurozone countries, said it had secured financial backing from the likes of BlackRock and Newton Investment Management.

The fund's initial focus will be on the Italian and Spanish solar photovoltaic (PV) markets.

Bluefield, which will be managed by Bluefield Partners, which also manages the FTSE-listed sister fund Bluefield Solar Income, said it was targeting a net internal rate of return of between 7 and 9%, with a €6 cents annual dividend.

"The fragmented nature of these markets is ideally suited to our solar investment and asset management expertise," said James Armstrong, a managing partner of Bluefield Partners.

"We expect to be able to use our specialist knowledge to quickly and efficiently consolidate a large, high yielding asset base for our shareholders. We have a high conviction that by implementing our low leverage investment strategy we have found a market opportunity that offers highly attractive valuations, defensive cashflows, dividend streams and, at circa €80bn of operational assets, real scalability."

Last week Chancellor George Osborne's summer Budget proposed the removal from 1 August 2015 of the exemption for renewably sourced electricity from the Climate Change Levy from which many renewables projects in the UK benefit by way of the sale of Levy Exemption Certificates (LECs).

Bluefield Partners said the Bluefield Solar Income Fund made 3-4% of total revenues from LECs.

"The impact of the loss of LEC revenue will be partially offset by the expected reduction in corporation tax. The majority of the company's revenues are derived from the regulated revenue from the Renewable Obligation Scheme, which remains unchanged, and by selling the generated electricity under power purchase agreements."