Infrastructure investors including Palisade Investment Partners, Lighthouse Infrastructure, First Sentier and the Dutch Infrastructure Fund are believed to be among those lining up to buy New Energy Solar’s Australian assets.
The listed solar energy company announced to the market last month that, following a strategic review, it had opted to sell its Australian solar farms.
The decision comes at a time when some market analysts say equity investors have not been ascribing the right value to what is considered a high-quality portfolio of Australian solar assets at a time when the sector is in strong demand by infrastructure investors and superannuation funds in search of steady income from stable assets.
New Energy Solar currently has a $318m market value and owns 14 solar projects in the US, as well its portfolio in Australia.
The company plans to sell its 110 megawatt Beryl plant and 55MW Manildra facilities in NSW.
Working on the sale, due to begin in January, is Royal Bank of Canada.
Parties such as Palisade, DIF and First Sentier have been competing for other renewable energy portfolios of late and are believed to be keen to buy more.
First Sentier, which recently bought wind farm assets from John Laing, is believed to be particularly eager to bulk up in the area of solar assets.
New Energy Solar’s Australian solar farms have been described as being in a mature operational state compared with its larger US portfolio, which totals 606MW of capacity.
Other solar portfolios on the market include a 49 per cent stake in the Australian solar farm portfolio owned by Spain’s FRV that is expected to be worth about $500m.
A further two solar assets are being sold by BlackRock, known as The Gretel Solar Portfolio. They include the Hayman Solar Farm, which generates 60MW of power, and Daydream Solar Farm, which generates 180MW.
New Energy Solar listed at $1.50 in 2017. Shares on Thursday closed at 97.5c.
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