Greencoat acquires CEE Group’s UK solar portfolio

Greencoat Solar completed the purchase of three solar farms in the UK from German asset manager CEE Group at the end of last year.

The portfolio, which comprises Bicester, Aston Clinton and Homestead PV farms has a total capacity of 60.4 megawatts, taking Greencoat Solar’s aggregate installed capacity above 600MW.

CEE will continue to manage the three solar farms on behalf of Greencoat but has decided to sell the assets to “refocus” on its core business in Germany and France.

The German company said the portfolio “demonstrated strong operational performance” throughout CEE’s ownership.

All three sites were developed by BayWa. CEE Group acquired the Bicester solar farm in 2013 and the other two in 2015.

Lee Moscovitch, partner at Greencoat Capital, investment adviser to Greencoat Solar Assets II, said: “We are delighted to acquire CEE’s high-quality assets, adding three more solar parks of significant size to our growing portfolio, and taking our installed capacity to more than 600MW. The visible pipeline of assets remains strong, and we remain very confident in the significant aggregation opportunity in UK solar.”

Detlef Schreiber, chief executive of CEE Group, added: “We are pleased with the sale of our UK solar portfolio to Greencoat, an experienced owner and operator of solar assets. The sale is in line with CEE’s strategic objective of refocusing on our core business in Germany and France and expanding into new continental European markets. We look forward to announcing further developments as they arise.”

Greencoat was advised by Evergy Engineering and Watson Farley & Williams, while CEE Group was advised by Norton Rose Fulbright.

Greencoat Capital announced in August last year that it had acquired 100 per cent of two 5MW solar farms for an undisclosed sum.

The company purchased Islip farm in Northamptonshire and Springhill farm in Gloucestershire for its Greencoat Solar II fund.