Special dividend boosts Bluefield Solar – after delivering a good set of results for the year ended 30 June 2019, Bluefield Solar has decided to pay an extra 0.63p per share to investors, on top of the target 7.68p. The target for the current financial year is 7.9p (reflecting UK inflation of 2.88%).
Over the year to the end of June, the company delivered a return of 10.9% on NAV and a return to shareholders of 19.1%. The chairman says “The explanation for the outperformance is straightforward. The period had higher than average irradiation (+6.6%), favourable conditions which were effectively translated into high levels of actual generation (+7.5%), made possible by the quality of the operating portfolio and a credit to the work of BSL.
This increased generation was then converted into high levels of revenue, enhanced in the period by the company being able to respond to, and capture, higher power prices.”
The main driver behind the NAV increase were lease extensions within the portfolio, these offset lower power price forecasts since December 2018. The company has had several successful planning determinations on 15 year lease extensions (amounting to over 100MWp), with a further 64MWp still awaiting an outcome or under negotiation. There have not been, at the time of writing, any planning rejections.
The chairman confirms that the managers are evaluating investments in unsubsidised solar plants.
BSIF : Special dividend boosts Bluefield Solar
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