Foresight seeks to raise £30 million to power acquisition drive

Foresight Solar Fund is hoping to raise almost £30 million through a share issue in order to pursue a 200MW pipeline of UK assets.

In a statement to the market this morning Foresight confirmed it was to place more than 28 million ordinary shares previously held in Treasury at a price of 102.5 pence per share, with gross proceeds expected to total circa £28.9 million.

The net proceeds of the issue will contribute towards Foresight’s acquisition fund, with the 200MW pipeline referenced by the company’s investment manager during last month’s interim results to be of particular interest.

Any assets acquired will add to Foresight’s already extensive portfolio of owned assets, which currently totals 338MW.

The placing opened at 7am this morning and will run until 1pm this Thursday (8 September 2016), with the results of the placing to be announced the following day.

The price is equal to the asset management fund’s net asset value per ordinary share at 30 June 2016 with an added estimate of accrued income attributable to the firm since that date, and a small premium to cover the costs of the placing.

While Foresight has provided no indication as to which type of assets are included in its potential pipeline, more than 2GW of secondary UK solar assets are understood to be on the market currently, consisting of large and small portfolios and individual assets.

The largest of these is thought to be the TerraForm Power portfolio of UK-based assets which has been placed on the market as the SunEdison yieldco continues to experience difficulties.