Deals

Cubico makes €50m Italian greenfield wind play

The 27MW project is the group’s fourth such asset in Italy, where it is also one of the largest solar owners.

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Cubico Sustainable Investments has secured a €50 million loan to finance a new 27MW wind farm in Italy.

The platform owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Public Sector Pension Investments received the financing from Banco Bilbao and Société Générale for the project in the Italian province of Benevento.

The move to finance the site differs from the vast majority of Cubico’s European portfolio, in which most additions have been through acquiring operational projects. Greenfield investments have largely been restricted to the firm’s activity in Latin America. Its previous Europe-based deal was the purchase of the Andasol 1 and Andasol 2 concentrated solar power plants in Spain from Antin and Deutsche Asset Management.

The latest project will add to the group’s growing Italian portfolio, which now has a capacity of about 230MW. Cubico became one of Italy’s largest solar asset owners last year when it bought eight projects from private equity firm Riverstone Holdings and SunEdison, with a capacity of 105.6MW. Four wind farms comprise the rest of the Italian portfolio. The acquired solar sites completed a €280 million limited recourse refinancing at the beginning of this year.

Cubico has an installed portfolio of about 2.5GW across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay.