TNB buying 50% stake in operator of solar assets in UK

PETALING JAYA: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is acquiring a 50% stake in Luxembourg’s Vortex Solar Investments SARL, which operates 365MW solar portfolio in the UK, for £86 million (RM476 million).
In a filing with the stock exchange, the power utility said its wholly owned subsidiary TNB International Sdn Bhd entered into a subscription and funding agreement with EFG Hermes Holding’s wholly owned subsidiary Beaufort Investments SARL for the acquisition.
TNB said the acquisition is in line with its five-year international expansion roadmap, which aims to secure up to 5000MW new generation capacity internationally by 2020, including the need to secure up to 250MW of renewable energy projects.
It said the solar energy assets are a unique portfolio of young and sizeable asset with an average asset age of two years and an estimated useful life of 30 years.
“They are immediately earning accretive on completion of the acquisition and currently delivering a high performance ratio. They are backed by a 15-year power purchase agreements secured with creditworthy off-takers and supported by Renewable Obligation Certificates for 20 years,” it said.
Vortex Solar is a special purpose vehicle company formed by Beaufort to finance in part the acquisition by Vortex Solar UK, which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Vortex Solar, of the entire stake in TerraForm UK 2 Intermediate Holdings Ltd and TerraForm UK 3 Intermediate Holdings Ltd from SunEdison Yieldco UK HoldCo2 LLC and redeem a loan note extended to both TerraForm UK 2 and UK 3.
TerraForm UK 2 and UK 3 hold interests in solar photovoltaic (PV) project companies that own and operate solar PV projects in the UK with a combined net installed capacity of about 365MW.
TNB shares rose 10 sen to RM13.94 last Friday.