Bluefield Solar Income Fund delivered an above-target dividend of 7.25 pence per share for the year ending 30 June 2015, and has paid a dividend in the period of 3.25 pence per share for the current financial year. They say, notwithstanding the reduction in power prices during the period, attractively priced acquisitions and strong contractual protections give the Directors comfort that the portfolio will continue to achieve the target return of 7 pence per share annually, rising with RPI. Their target dividend for the current year is 7.07 pence per share and they expect to match or exceed this.
NAV per share as at 31 December 2015 was 101.79 pence, down from 103.58 pence on 30 June. Lower power prices and changes to government subsidies have had an impact.
Lower generation and downward pressure on power prices were offset by the effective management of power price exposure. The strong operational performance and our contractual protections allowed the Company to generate revenues in the period only 2.8% below forecast, notwithstanding the weather.
The statement includes a table that shows their dividend forecasts in different power price scenarios. Their 7.07p target is met with power prices at or above £40/MWh (current price they are achieving is £46). This rises to 7.25p in 2017 and 7.43p in 2018. In a worst case scenario, where they couldn’t sell the power, government subsidies would support a 6.56p dividend this year, 4.42p next and 2.86p the year after – we should stress that this scenario is highly unrealistic!
During the six month period they bought 34 plants through 7 acquisitions from total commitments of £31.7m with an estimated combined energy capacity of 25.8 MWp.
BSIF : Bluefield Solar says still on track for 7p+RPI returns