Glennmont Partners from Nuveen (Glennmont) has acquired 100 per cent of the share capital of Sirocco Winco 2, a portfolio of onshore wind projects in Albacete and Andalucia, from Sirocco Power, a special purpose vehicle incorporated by Alfanar Group, Saudi Arabia (Alfanar).
The investment represents Glennmont’s first acquisition in the Spanish wind market and is made up of four assets with a combined capacity of 98.7MW: La Escalereta II (23.63MW), La Estancia (7.8MW), Chinchilla (27.30MW) and Barrax (39.70MW). All assets have been acquired at COD and have begun operations.
The projects will benefit from a ten and a half-year PPA with Engie and have debt financing in place with Banco De Sabadell, the European Investment Bank and Abanca Corporacion Bancaria, SA.
Herbert Smith acted as the legal adviser for Glennmont, Garrigues acted as the legal adviser for Alfanar, DNV provided technical advice and Ernst & Young advised on tax.
Joost Bergsma, CEO and co-founder of Glennmont Partners, says: “We are pleased to have finalised the acquisition of Sirocco from Alfanar. Spain is a key target geography for Glennmont and our entry to the Spanish wind market marks a significant milestone for our ambitions for the region, as well as the amount of capital we have now invested in projects from our third clean energy investment platform.
“The well-structured nature of the Sirocco investment combined with a strong counterparty in Alfanar makes it an ideal first onshore wind project to support Glennmont’s investment strategy in Spain. The success of this deal underlines the team’s continued ability to clear value for our investors as we look to support the global transition to renewables.”
Jamal Wadi, CEO of Alfanar Global Development and President at Alfanar Company, says: “We are happy to conclude this transaction with Glennmont successfully. We believe this is just the beginning of development of many projects together in the future. We are committed to the Spanish market, and the deal with Glennmont gives Alfanar management the necessary confidence to invest more in Europe in general and in Spain in particular.”
The Sirocco acquisition sees Glennmont expand its footprint in Spain following the acquisition of a 473MW Solar PV portfolio in September. Last month, Glennmont acquired a 50 per cent stake in the 900MW German offshore wind project, Borkum Riffgrund 3, from Ørsted in a deal worth EUR1.4 billion.
In March 2021, Glennmont was acquired by Nuveen, the USD1.2 trillion global asset manager, which will better enable Glennmont to drive its plans to raise further capital, and to target new investments in all major technologies – offshore wind, onshore wind and solar PV – in their core European markets as well as across Asia Pacific and the US.
