Northleaf Capital Partners has announced the divestment of its majority interest in the NCP Mula Solar plant in Spain, to an offshoot of China Three Gorges Corporation.
China Three Gorges (Spain), S.L.U., an indirect Spanish subsidiary of the Chinese green energy firm, is set to take control of the 494 MWp plant, which is located in Murcia.
Value creation plan
According to Northleaf, the transaction, which was conducted alongside minority investment partner Qualitas Energy, follows the completion of its value creation plan for Mula, and looks set to generate ‘significant cash proceeds’ for Northleaf’s investors.
“Northleaf’s successful sale of Mula underscores our ability to consistently deliver value by focusing on mid-market infrastructure assets with stable cashflow, strong yield and inflation linkage,” commented Roderick Gadsby, managing director and head of European infrastructure at Northleaf.
“Our approach to bilaterally sourcing, prudently growing, de-risking, and opportunistically exiting core infrastructure assets is how we achieve attractive returns for our investors across market cycles.”
Northleaf control
Funds managed by Northleaf acquired a controlling interest in Mula in 2018, overseeing the plant’s construction and optimisation before embarking on a structured sales process in late 2023. It expects the deal to be completed in early 2025.
Northleaf, which holds more than than $27 billion in private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments, was advised by Société Générale (financial), Watson Farley & Williams (legal), E&Y (accounting and tax), and DNV (technical) as part of the transaction.
In a statement, Northleaf added that Mula is one of ‘Europe’s largest operational solar plants and has a highly contracted financial profile, courtesy of an attractive long-term pay-as-produced power purchase agreement with an investment-grade counterparty and financing with top-tier banks. Mula benefits from some of the highest solar irradiation levels in Spain, robust transmission networks and the capacity to accommodate further renewable energy development.’
Picture by Qualitas Energy. Read more here.
