F2i infrastructure fund won the auction for RTR Rete Rinnovabile, a European leader in the production of renewable energies by solar plants with 134 plants in italy for a total capacity of 334 MWp, Il Messaggero wrote yesterday adding that the deal was signed last weekend for a 400 million euros equity value and en enterprise value well over one billion euros. The EV is however lower than the one the seller, Terra Firma fund, was looking for.
RTR, after having reached 158 million euros in revenuews in 2017 with 134 million euros in ebitda and about 900 millions in net financial debt, was said to be valued 1.2-1.3 billion euros since the auction began, but Terra Firma was said to be looking for an EV of about 1.5-1.6 billion euros.
Terra Firma had invested in RTR in 2011, when it bought the company from Terna. Back then RTR had a total capacity of 144MWp, and was valued 755 million euros, of which 641 millions of equity value (see here the press release).
F2i was said to be favourite in the race with respect to the other competitor Sonnedix Power Holdings, an international operator in the renweable energies sector with more than 700 Mwp of capacity and active in France, Spain, Usa, Porto Rico, Chile, South Africa, Japan and Italy. Sonnedix is controlled by JP Morgan asset management – Global real assets (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The acquisition was made by F2i sgr alone even if in the first phase of the auction the fund was working togetbner with Enel group, through their paritetic joint venture EF Solare Italia, owning 120 plants with 393 MW of capacity. The decision to make the deal alone now puts some question marks over the ratio and the future of the joint venture itself.
