In December 2017 specialist investment manager Oxford Capital completed the first of three planned phases of the refinancing of their 92MWp UK Solar PV portfolio. Today the firm has announced the completion of the second phase of the programme. This second phase saw a further £19m provided by Oxford Capital and funds managed by BlackRock, with funding provided at the holding company level.
IDCM Limited acted as Arranger on the transaction with legal advice provided to the parties by Osborne Clarke and Burges Salmon.
Oliver Hughes, Partner at Oxford Capital, said ‘We are delighted to have completed the second phase of this refinancing programme. This high quality portfolio of solar PV assets continues to perform well, and our in-house portfolio management team continue to ensure maximum value is realised for our investors. We are pleased to have worked with Blackrock on this phase of the portfolio refinancing. Thanks also to IDCM for their professional approach.’
Jean-Christophe Oberto, Executive Director at IDCM Limited said, “Following our successful cooperation last year, we are very pleased to have worked with Oxford Capital again on another innovative transaction. The renewable sector is experiencing a shift from subsidy-based revenues to merchant-based revenues and, we believe that, against this context, HoldCo financing will become more popular in Europe, in particular for greenfield projects. We are committed to assisting our clients through this transition and helping them achieve their financing goals.”
Jonathan Stevens, Head of European Infrastructure Debt at BlackRock, said: “We are delighted to have made this debt investment on behalf of our institutional clients. This financing provided an opportunity to extend our investment in the UK renewable energy sector with an experienced partner and at an attractive return.”