DIF Infrastructure III has reached financial close on the acquisition of 100% of the Springhill and Islip solar PV projects in the UK from a consortium of private investors, led by Peter Davies, CEO of the solar energy project development and O&M group, Axiom Energy Group Limited.

The Springhill project is located near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire and the Islip project is located near Kettering, Northamptonshire. The projects each have an installed capacity of 5MW and were commissioned in July 2011.  They benefit from a 25 year feed-in-tariff mandated by the UK Government that is escalated with RPI, and have been financed with separate non-recourse debt finance facilities provided by RBS.  Stepnell Limited , the UK construction group, provided sub-debt to the projects, which was acquired by DIF Infrastructure III.

The DIF Infrastructure III fund has already acquired a number of solar PV projects in France and is looking to acquire additional solar PV projects that benefit from feed-in-tariffs in Canada, the UK and France.

In February 2013, DIF Infrastructure III reached the third fundraising close at €604 million. DIF manages funds of in total € 1.6 billion.

Source: DIF