The Deutsche Bank assets being acquired include 6MW of operating assets and 10MW of permitted projects ready for construction in the Puglia region plus a pipeline of approximately 150MW in various stages of permitting.
Marco Northland, CEO and director of Etrion, said: “This acquisition represents an important leap forward for Etrion. We are acquiring a combination of operating assets with immediate revenue, projects for construction in 2010, a pipeline for 2011 and relationships with highly qualified local developers. We look forward to building out the Italian pipeline that Deutsche Bank developed over several years.”
The operating assets consist of 6MW of ground-based solar photovoltaic plants, producing approximately 10,250kWh of electricity. These plants benefit from the 2009 feed-in-tariff of EUR0.353 per kWh plus a spot rate of approximately EUR0.08 per kWh.
The Italian feed-in-tariff is a premium purchase price for renewable electricity that is guaranteed by the Italian government for 20 years. The operating plants also benefit from an existing facility agreement with Societe Generale and Dexia for up to EUR45m available on the basis of 90:10 debt-to-equity, of which EUR28m has been drawn to date.
The acquisition of the Deutsche Bank assets is scheduled to close by April 30, 2010, and is subject to closing conditions. The company intends to fund the acquisition through a combination of cash on hand and a bridge loan from its shareholder Lundin Petroleum.
