Capital Stage acquires nine solar parks in Italy

Capital Stage, the German wind park operator, has signed an agreement to acquire nine Italian solar parks from the Austrian Stumpf Group with a total capacity of 29.1 MWp.

The total investment volume of the current acquisition, including debt, amounts to roughly €100 million (US$113 million). Existing project financing from Deutsche Bank and UBI Banca is being retained. The acquisition is subject to the usual conditions precedent.

Eight of the nine Italian solar parks are situated in the Marche region and another is located in the Apulian region. The sites went into operation between March and August 2011.

The average feed-in tariff is approximately €28.4 cents (US$32.2 cents) per kWh. Capital Stage Solar Service, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital Stage, will be responsible for the technical management of the photovoltaic (PV) parks.

Capital Stage expects the portfolio of nine PV parks to make revenue contributions of roughly €13 million (US$14.8 million) from its first year in full operation.

Felix Goedhart, CEO of Capital Stage, has commented:

"The acquisition of this attractive portfolio of solar parks in Italy is a further proof of the steady and high-quality deal flow in the markets relevant to us. As such, we already have been able to successfully invest a large part of the investment funds provided to us by the Gothaer Insurance Group as part of a strategic partnership from late 2014."

In May, we reported that Capital Stage was to acquire PROKON Regenerative Energien.

Over the last seven months, Capital Stage has been able to successfully invest more than 70% of the funds available through its partnership with Gothaer Insurance Group.

This transaction increases Capital Stage's total power generation portfolio to 480 MW.