Plenium Partners is planning a sale of Iberia-focused solar rooftop business SotySolar, a move that comes at a time of strong growth in the sector across Spain.
The Madrid-headquartered fund manager has mandated investment bank Lazard to sell 100% of the business, which includes around 5,000 installations across residential and industrial buildings in Spain and Portugal, according to a source close to the situation and an investment teaser seen by Infralogic.
The teaser was issued earlier this month and has attracted initial interest from a large number of investors including infrastructure funds, private equity investors and utilities, according to the source close.
The aim is to receive non-binding offers around mid-May with a view to completing the transaction before the end of this summer.
SotySolar, which has around 200 employees, has expanded significantly since its launch in 2016 and is specialized in self-consumption solar PV installations in the residential segment. The firm is currently expanding to the industrial and commercial segments, and also focuses on batteries for home energy storage and EV chargers.
The business, which is expected to reach revenues of around EUR 50m this year, aims to raise this figure to more than EUR 200m by 2025 as part of its current business plan, according to the teaser.
Plenium and Lazard did not respond to requests for comment.
The deal comes at a time of growing investments and government support in Spain in residential installations with solar PV investments for self-consumption in 2022 rising to 2.65 GW from 1.15 GW in 2021, according to figures releases by Asociacion de Empresas de Energías Renovables (APPA), the main body representing renewable energy firms in Spain. Installations in residential buildings rose from 253 MW to more than 1 GW, while industrial installations doubled from 898 MW to 1.63 GW.
Plenium Partners is a major investor in Spain’s solar PV sector, having also raised dedicated solar funds for its investments. In recent months, the manager made investments in several solar PV portfolios, according to Infralogic, including buying an 18 MW portfolio managed by Santander Asset Management. In January, it jointly with Bankinter Investment also bought a 247 MW solar PV portfolio in Aragon, northeastern Spain, from Lightsource bp.
Other major European players in the rooftop solar segment include Enpal, a German household solar systems firm which last December raised EUR 855m of debt from several infrastructure lenders including Blackrock Alternatives, ING, Pricoa Private Capital, Unicredit and Infranity, in what was Europe’s largest residential solar debt fundraising. It was part of a major push of this company to grow its business in Germany.
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