Fondi Italiani per le Infrastrutture (F2i), acting on behalf on its Third Fund, has signed an agreement to acquire RTR, which owns 134 solar plants in Italy with an overall installed capacity of 334MW from Terra Firma.
F2i CEO Renato Ravanelli stated: “Thanks to the overall scale of production reached with this acquisition, F2i becomes Europe’s third largest producer of electrical power from solar energy. The noteworthy operating and financial efficiencies of scale achieved will also make it one of the continent’s most efficient operators”
By the end of this year, F2i intends to confer all the photovoltaic assets held by the Fund (389MW) to EF Solare Italia, with installed capacity of more than 800MW.
EF Solare is already a major Italian operator in the sector, which is 50% owned by the Third Fund. Recently, F2i stated that it intends to acquire the remaining 50% of the company, which is owned by Enel.
RTR CEO Ingmar Wilhelm said: “Terra Firma built RTR from the ground up, using our operational and strategic management expertise to drive growth through selective acquisitions, and now is the right time to hand over to a new long term owner. This is an exciting time in the Italian and European solar industry, and the new owner has a great platform for future growth and consolidation.”
Closing of the transaction is subject to approval from antitrust authorities.
In June, F2i entered into agreements with Enel Group, Enel Produzione and Enel Green Power to purchase five plants that generate electricity from vegetable biomass with a combined power output of 107MW.
Two plants that are already in operation with a capacity of 47MW and they are located in Italian regions of Calabria and Emilia-Romagna.
Third and fourth plants are presently in their construction phase and will be operational by the end of this year. These two plants will give an output of 48MW and are located in the Sardinia and Emilia-Romagna region.
The fifth plant is still in its development stage and will be located in Lombardy. It will have a capacity of 12MW and is expected to be operational next year.