Investors

Sonnedix snaps up Ardian solar vehicle

The operator of 67MW of solar plants in France was the first investment made by Ardian’s debut clean energy vehicle in December 2014.

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European solar firm Sonnedix has bought French developer and operator Aloe Energy in a deal that brings its portfolio in the country to 155MW.

Sonnedix, backed fully by JPMorgan Asset Management since August last year, has secured a further 67MW of operating projects with the latest acquisition while Aloe Energy has a number of investments in the pipeline.

The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The company was bought from the French private equity pair of Ardian Infrastructure and Debiopharm Investment, as well as consortium partner Aloem. The trio created Aloe Energy when they acquired and renamed Delta Solar in December 2014.

Just nine months later, Aloe Energy secured a €200 million refinancing of the nine solar plants it owns from Siemens Bank, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, in a deal it said would sustain its “ambition for organic and external growth in the renewable energy sector in the coming years”.

Ardian’s 30 percent stake in Aloe Energy was bought through its €155 million AXA Clean Energy Fund, a vehicle launched at the time to access smaller renewable energy investments.

Sonnedix’s acquisition is its latest in a wave of investments since JPMorgan consolidated its ownership 10 months ago. Deals which include buying the 136MW Vela Portfolio in Spain from Centerbridge and the 21.6MW Grape portfolio from First Reserve in Italy have boosted its global capacity to 1.2GW, a figure which has more than doubled in the last 18 months.