Bluefield to list its planned European-focused solar PV yieldco

Bluefield European Solar Fund Limited has plans to raise €200 million (US$216.5 million) by way of a Placing and an Offer for Subscription of ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange.

Bluefield Partners LLP, who established the first of the UK's focused solar PV investment companies, will act as Investment Adviser and will be supervised by a highly distinguished independent Board of Directors, chaired by Sir Neville Simms, former Chairman of International Power PLC and former Deputy Chairman of GDF Suez Energy International.

The company is a closed-ended investment company. Bluefield European Solar Fund Limited will acquire and optimise solar PV assets located in Eurozone countries (excluding Greece), with an initial focus on the Italian and Spanish solar PV markets. It will seek to provide shareholders with an attractive return, principally in the form of regular income distributions with high levels of dividend cover.

The fund will be seeded with a target portfolio of 49 MWp of diversified, fully operational, solar PV assets in Italy and Spain for an expected consideration of €157 million (US$170 million). The balance of the net proceeds of the issue is expected to be committed to investment within 12 months;

Goldman Sachs International is acting as global coordinator and sponsor, and along with Numis Securities Limited and UBS Investment Bank as joint bookrunners in relation to the IPO.

James Armstrong, a managing partner of Bluefield Partners LLP, the Investment Adviser stated:

"The fragmented nature of these markets is ideally suited to our solar investment and asset management expertise. 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 c.€80 billion of operational assets, real scalability."

Sir Neville Simms, the Non-Executive Chairman of Bluefield European Solar Fund Limited, commented:

"My previous experience of the European energy markets confirms the Investment Adviser's central investment thesis that there is the opportunity to create above average, long term returns in these attractively priced markets if approached in a defensive way. The deep solar experience of the Investment Adviser's specialist team and market leading track record combined with the scale of the opportunity provides the foundation to build a market leading solar focused energy company in the coming years."