Sonnedix bulks up Italian solar portfolio with four deals

Global solar operator Sonnedix has consolidated its Italian portfolio after agreeing a quartet of deals in the country.

The firm, fully owned by JPMorgan Asset Management since September 2016, paid London-listed group Trading Emissions €3 million for a 5MW portfolio of four ground-mounted solar plants located in Apulia and Sicily. The move comes after Sonnedix bought 11MW from the company a year earlier.

The deals also included acquisitions from local owners, with Sonnedix acquiring a 4MW portfolio of one rooftop and two ground-mounted PV plants in Piedmont from the Gavio Group, a 1.9MW set of three sites in Apulia from SO.CO.FIN, and a 0.8MW project in the same region from Errenergia.

The transactions are Sonnedix’s first in the country since March last year and have brought its portfolio in Italy to 114MW – one of the largest alongside peers including Terra Firma, Tages Helios and Enel and F2i.

“To further solidify our growing presence in Italy, Sonnedix will continue to look for new opportunities in the Italian market where our strategy and execution processes have been fruitful,” said Andreas Mustad, chief executive of Sonnedix.

The company is one of JPMorgan’s largest assets in the open-ended Infrastructure Investments Fund, representing 13.1 percent of its net asset value, as at the end of March 2017, according to pension fund documents. It had generated a net return in the previous 12 months of 9.3 percent. JPMorgan had invested €886 million in the group from December 2014 to March 2017.

The group’s efforts in the second half of last year focused more on growing a base outside Europe, with a 46MW acquisition in Japan and an investment in Cox Energy in Chile. It has a global operating capacity of 670.4MW.