Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co’s (WLG) Energy team has acted on one of the UK’s largest ever solar M&A deals, advising Primrose Solar on the sale of four solar farms.
Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF) acquired the farms, which have a total capacity of 94.5MW. The sale included one of the UK’s largest operational farms, the Southwick Estate in Hampshire (48 MW).
The other farms are Littlebourne (17 MW) and Molehill (18 MW) in Kent and Pashley (11.5 MW) in East Sussex. All four were development projects acquired and constructed by Primrose.
Corporate partner and energy sector specialist Gareth Baker and associate Mark Knight led on the deal.
Primrose Solar CEO Giles Clark said: “We’re pleased to have concluded this transaction with the help of our longstanding advisers at WLG. It’s a significant deal for the UK solar energy market, and the team at WLG were ideally placed to advise, thanks to their extensive experience and knowledge of the solar sector.”
Gareth Baker added: “The announcements on Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) and Renewables Obligation (RO) changes published by Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in December last year, in particular the availability of RO grace periods for sub 5MW projects through to 31 March 2017, was good news for developers and other participants in the UK solar market.”
“This sale accounts for a third of Primrose’s current portfolio, and we look forward to working with Giles and the Primrose team as the company continues its activity in the market.”
The core team working with Gareth and Mark included partners Mark Hick (insurance), Paul Green (construction) and Helen Emmerson (real estate), directors Zoe Fatchen (tax) and Graham Wrigglesworth (planning), principal associate Erika Pircher-Eschig (project finance), associate Ross Mackay (corporate) and Jade MacDonald (corporate).
A wider team of specialists from commercial, banking & finance, employment, regulation and litigation were also involved to provide Primrose Solar with a complete legal service.
