$350m pours into Fotowatio's Spanish solar
Greenbang must have been having a quick nap when this happened earlier this month, but it’s a bit of a doozy so it’s worth mentioning.
So there Greenbang was, telling you all about this company and that company picking up a mere $10m here and a tiny $23m there and all the while Spanish solar power firm Fotowatio has picked up a whacking great $350m.
Greenbang will repeat that: Fotowatio has picked up $350m – and that’s real live dollars, not crazy moon dollars or anything – from two investors, GE Energy Financial Services and Grupo Grupo Corporativo Landon.
GE said it got interested in the company for its international operations (it’s got 960 megawatts of solar projects in Spain, Italy and the US) as well as its “ecomagination”. (PR people really should be physically restrained to prevent that sort of thing, Greenbang reckons).
More on the deal from GE:
Fotowatio’s portfolio includes almost 60 megawatts in operation in the Spanish towns of Trujillo, Arroyo de San Serván and Olmedilla de Alarcón; and more than 900 megawatts of projects in development in Spain, Italy and the United States. Fotowatio uses solar photovoltaic technology, which converts light directly into electricity, as well as concentrated solar power technology, which uses mirrors and tracking systems to focus sunlight into a heat source for use in a conventional steam turbine. With no fuel cost or emissions, this portfolio will produce clean energy and avoid more than 730,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fossil fuel technology.
GE Energy Financial Services will invest $235m (€150m) in equity and convertible debt to acquire 32 per cent and Grupo Corporativo Landon, a family-owned Spanish holding company with diversified investments, will invest $118m (€75m) in equity to acquire 17.5 per cent of a new holding company, Fotowatio SL. The existing Spanish investors will own the remaining 50.5 per cent: Qualitas Venture Capital – a fund managed by Qualitas Equity Partners and invested in by Timón SA-will own 33.5 per cent, and Fotowatio’s management will own 17 per cent.
