Lightsource Renewable Energy appoints head of equity fundraising

Lightsource Renewable Energy, Europe’s leading solar energy generator, has recently announced the appointment of Shane Swords as Head of Equity Fundraising.

Mr Swords who has more than 15 years’ experience in infrastructure and energy finance, joins from Rubicon Infrastructure Advisors where he was a Director.

At Rubicon, Mr Swords closed a number of equity and debt transactions in Europe and the US including the sale of the income stream in the Convention Centre Dublin and the €600 million capital raise for Isolux Infrastructure which included solar, transmission and toll road assets. Previously, Mr Swords held positions at Helaba and Depfa Bank.

Lightsource, which was founded in only 2010, has grown to be Europe's largest utility scale solar photovoltaic developer and operator with over 1.3GWof solar PV assets under management.

Lightsource raised over £1.1billion in project finance debt in 2015, which included a £284 million 22-year renewables bond; the largest ever sterling-denominated renewables bond.

Given the regulatory framework and low operations risk pertaining to solar assets, investors are increasingly deploying capital into such assets. Lightsource has received a number of reverse enquiries from institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, energy funds, private equity funds, energy developers and other sponsors into its assets.