Fundraising

InfraVia offloads 19.9MW solar portfolio

Demeter Partners’ first infrastructure fund has acquired 17 commercial-scale solar installations in France and French overseas territories.

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French fund manager InfraVia has sold a solar portfolio with a combined capacity of 19.9MW to private equity firm Demeter Partners.

The acquisitions were made through Demeter’s 4 INFRA fund, focused on financing clean energy infrastructure.

The deal includes the sale of two special purpose vehicles. One of them – Société de Partenariat Solaire (Soparsol) – is the owner of six solar installations with a capacity of 12.8MW. While one of these is based in the south of France, the remaining five are
located in the French overseas territories of La RĂ©union and Mayotte.

All of them have been operational since 2010, benefit from a feed-in tariff with EDF and are installed on the rooftops of commercial centres.

The other SPV – Centrales Photovoltaïques en Toitures (Tecta) – holds a 7.1MW portfolio spread across 11 installations on industrial, commercial and municipal buildings in southern France. The projects also benefit from a feed-in tariff and have been operational since 2011.

“Soparsol and Tecta are Demeter 4 INFRA’s fourth and fifth investments. They complement the fund’s photovoltaic portfolio, which is now close to 30MW in operation,” said Philippe Detours, infrastructure partner at Demeter Partners. “Those investments are in line with the fund’s investment strategy: targeting quality projects, optimising the risk/return profile, and keeping a strong focus on the ability of our portfolio of assets to pay recurrent distributions to our LPs.”

The fund was launched in February last year with €50 million in commitments from insurance companies and pension funds, as well as those already invested in the firm’s previous vehicles such as Crédit Coopératif and Caisse des Dépôts. Demeter 4 INFRA is targeting a €100 million close. Its first investments include a 10MW solar portfolio and a 6MW French wind farm.

Demeter Partners has launched three previous funds, for which it has raised over a combined €500 million. These have focused on growth and seed capital for environmental companies and projects.