Sonnedix, an independent solar power producer, has completed the ownership transfer of its South African operations to BTE Renewables, a wind, and solar power producer, backed by global infrastructure investor Actis. The transaction includes the sale of Sonnedix Africa’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Sonnedix Solar South Africa.
Sonnedix Solar South Africa owns a 60% interest in Mulilo Sonnedix Prieska PV (RF) Proprietary Limited, which owns the solar PV project in the Prieska region of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, with a contracted capacity of 75 MW.
Sonnedix Solar South Africa also manages the Prieska project through a management services agreement on behalf of the shareholders.
“We are moving our operations away from South Africa – where we’ve been successfully managing our 86.2 MW Sonnedix Prieska project for over five years to align our sustainable growth strategy across OECD markets”, said Axel Thiemann, CEO of Sonnedix.
“We take with us the experience of operating in this market and working with a great team of experts, and we’re confident of leaving things in the good hands of a company that’s also committed to further expanding the use of solar,” he added.
“This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to growing our African renewable energy asset portfolio, which already includes two solar PV plants in the same area of South Africa, making this a natural fit whilst successfully increasing our operating project portfolio to 473 MW. We look forward to working with our new partners and contributing positively to South Africa’s clean energy production,” commented Robert Skjodt, CEO of BTE Renewables.
In this transaction, Sonnedix was advised by Norton Rose Fullbright as primary legal counsel and Fieldstone as its financial advisor, while Bowmans served as primary legal counsel to BTE Renewables.
In March 2022, Sonnedix acquired Warsaw-based Sun Power Energy, a solar project developer in Poland. The acquisition gives Sonnedix close to a 1 GW development pipeline across Poland and is a springboard for further expansion into a new European market.
Recently, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), an infrastructure-focused private equity fund manager through its IDEAS Managed Fund (IDEAS), acquired a majority stake in three solar projects in South Africa. The 30 MW solar portfolio reached a financial close in May 2022 and is expected to reach commercial operation in March and April 2023.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2022 solar funding and M&A report, 82 large-scale solar project acquisitions were in Q1 2022, compared to 80 transactions in Q4 2021. Year-over-year, there were 82 large-scale solar project acquisitions in Q1 2021.
