The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has exchanged contracts to invest in the owner of more than 100MW of wind and solar assets in France and two of the country’s territorial islands.
Phoenix’s portfolio comprises five onshore wind farms in northern France with a combined capacity of 74MW and four operational solar parks with battery storage located on the islands of Corsica and La Reunion with a combined capacity of 29MW.
All the portfolio assets are backed by the French government’s feed-in tariff subsidy.
The investment is made in the form of mezzanine level bonds which are scheduled to be fully repaid within a period of 12 years, which is within the remaining subsidy life of the portfolio.
French developer Akuo Energy developed all of the projects.
The investment has an “attractive return with very little sensitivity” to changes in wholesale power prices, TRIG said.
The bonds are subordinated to project finance debt within the portfolio and are repaid in priority to all equity distributions.
Through the bonds, TRIG has information and management rights similar to those of a minority equity investor.
The investment in Phoenix will represent approximately 2% of TRIG’s portfolio value.
When combined with the investment in East Anglia 1, which is expected to complete shortly upon consent from the Crown Estate, and taking into account the proceeds from the recent equity raise by the company, there will be drawings of approximately £40m under TRIG’s revolving credit facility.