Foresight Solar Fund has announced its interim results for the half year ended 30 June 2015. The fund’s NAV increased from £209.8m to £277.9m (24.5%) although NAV per share fell 2.3% from 100.9p to 98.6p. Reported profit for the period was £5.38m and earnings per share was 2.32p. A second quarterly dividend of 1.52p is to be paid on 30 September 2015 and the company says it is on target to deliver a 6.10p dividend for the financial year ending 31 December 2015 (6.00 pence inflated by RPI for 2014).
In terms of portfolio developments, acquisition of the 37MW Kencot asset completed during the period and the Company finalised the connection of the 2.3MW extension at its Wymeswold plant, increasing capacity by 7% to 34.4MW. On 25 June 2015, the Company agreed to fund construction of the 30MW Copley asset located in Nottinghamshire. The company say that they expect this asset to qualify for the 1.3 Renewable Obligation Certificate banding under the Renewable Obligation 12 month grace period. Overall, asset performance was 7.4% ahead of the investment manager’s expectations with energy generated amounting to 131GWh, resulting in revenue of £14.9m across the company’s investments.
Since the period end, the Company has announced the acquisition of a majority interest in three 1.4 ROC assets forming a 34MW portfolio resulting in a net acquisition of 24 MW. These acquisitions bring the net operating portfolio to 287MW. The Company has confirmed a further extension of its acquisition facility, from £120m to £150m, in order to take advantage of an attractive 300MW pipeline.
Foresight Solar on track to pay a 6.1p dividend for the current year : FSFL