NextEnergy Solar Fund has said it expects to continue its UK solar farm acquisition drive after adding two additional solar farms to its UK portfolio.
The investment firm said on Monday that it had signed purchase agreements to acquire two new solar farms after they were connected to the national grid last month, taking its total number of assets in the UK to 17.
NextEnergy is to pay £40.5 million for the 33.7MWp Glebe solar farm in Bedfordshire and £14.2 million for the Hawkers solar farm in Somerset just a month after it acquired new solar projects in Essex and Devon.
The acquisitions will be paid for using the firm’s existing equity funding and a £31.5 million revolving credit facility, and NextEnergy chairman Kevin Lyon said the new deals had completed the spending of the £61.4 million equity raised from a share issue earlier this year.
“We have now deployed all of the equity raised since our initial public offering a year ago, and have allocated the £61 million raised in late February within seven weeks.
“In total, NextEnergy Solar Fund has acquired 17 individual assets, demonstrating the team's ability to source and execute attractive transactions,” Lyon said.
And Lyon also said the company was now exploring other sources of funding in order to secure other acquisitions that it has lined up.
“NextEnergy Solar Fund expects to secure further acquisitions in short order, financed by the debt facility we have in place, and is actively exploring further debt funding sources,” he added.