Saudi ACWA Power sells 100% stake in Bulgarian Solar Plant

Saudi Arabian energy group ACWA Power has made a 100% disinvestment from 60.4 MWp Karadzhalovo photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Bulgaria

The ACF Renewable Energy Limited, a subsidiary of ACWA Power sold its 100% stake in ACWA Power CF Karad PV Park EAD which owns the power plant to Energy Development GmbH, an Austrian investor and project developer in the renewable energy sector for an undisclosed consideration.

ACWA also withdrew from the overall operations and maintenance (O&M) of the power plant by selling the entire stake of NOMAC Bulgaria which provided O&M services to the ACWA Power Karad plant to Energy Development GmbH.

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NOMAC Bulgaria was owned by ACWA through its subsidiary NOMAC Limited

Both deals follow an initial signing of a binding agreement back in December 2019 and constitute the largest brownfield PV deal in Bulgaria to date. The amounts of the deals remain undisclosed.

The Karadzhalovo power plant, which is the largest single-site PV plant in Bulgaria, generated 85.56 GWh of carbon-neutral energy in 2019. Raiffeisen Bank International AG acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the sellers and CMS Sofia serves as the legal advisor to the sellers.

“ACWA Power Karad was one of our first solar PV project investments and served as a stepping-stone to our future investments in the renewable Solar PV market in the Middle East, Africa and rest of the world.

“From those beginnings just a decade ago, we are proud to recognize that approximately 25% of ACWA Power’s total portfolio (based on capital cost) which in the meanwhile has multiplied by four times, comprises of renewable power assets.”

Rajit Nanda, chief investment officer, ACWA Power, commented, “This sale represents one of the few complete divestments undertaken by ACWA Power. Being one of our early Solar PV investments, the Karadzhalovo plant provided us with great learnings to expand our footprint in the sector; however, while we maintain our focus on renewables, given the relatively small size of this plant in comparison to the remainder in our rapidly growing portfolio, we believe it now makes sense to sell our stake in this plant.”