ContourGlobal sells minority interest in Spanish solar assets

6th Dec 2018 08:06

(Sharecast News) - ContourGlobal has reached an agreement to sell a 49% interest in its 250 MW concentrated solar power facilities in the south west of Spain, it announced on Thursday, to a fund advised by Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners.The FTSE 250 company said the total consideration payable for the 49% stake would be €134m, to be paid in cash.That represented a premium of about €65m to ContourGlobal's proportionate net investment in the 49% stake, of €69m.Completion of the transaction was expected to occur in one or more closings, subject to the satisfaction of various customary closing conditions which the board said were expected to be fulfilled by the end of the second quarter of 2019.As part of the agreement, ContourGlobal said it would continue to manage, operate and maintain the five assets.On its current trading, ContourGlobal said its business performance had been "good", despite renewable resources performing below plan in certain markets.Its board said it remained comfortable with its indicated guidance range for 2018, of adjusted EBITDA falling between $600m and $630m on a constant currency basis.As at 30 September, the financial metrics specified under the firm's corporate bond indenture were a non-guarantor leverage ratio of 3.8x and a debt service coverage ratio of 7.6x.The company said it expected its net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio to be about 4.5x as at 31 December."We are very pleased to expand our partnership with CSEIP in Europe with our second sale of minority interests this year," said ContourGlobal president and chief executive officer Joseph C Brandt."CSEIP is a committed long-term partner and leading investor in the infrastructure field, combining deep industry expertise with unique sourcing and distribution capabilities."Brandt said the board "looked forward" to extending that partnership into new markets."We continue to see opportunities to enhance shareholder returns and redeploy capital into our significant growth pipeline by selling minority stakes in our global portfolio of businesses to dedicated infrastructure investors looking to invest long-term with strategic operating partners."