Acwa Power sells stake in Bulgarian solar plant

The Saudi Arabian developer’s subsidiary, ACF Renewable Energy, sold its holding in the 60.4MW plant to Austria's Enery Development

Acwa Power president and chief executive Paddy Padmanathan, centre. On Monday, Acwa Power achieved financial closure on a $650m desalination project in Jubail. Antonie Robertson/The National

Acwa Power divested its 100 per cent stake in a Bulgarian solar photovoltaic plant to an Austrian utility developer for an undisclosed amount.

The Saudi Arabian developer’s subsidiary, ACF Renewable Energy, sold its stake in Bulgaria's Power CF Karad PV Park to Enery Development.

The power company operates the 60.4 Megawatt Karadzhalovo PV plant in the country.

Separately, another Acwa Power subsidiary, Nomac Limited, also sold its full stake in Nomac Bulgaria, a company that provides operations and maintenance services to the PV plant, for an undisclosed value.

Both transactions follow the singing of a “binding agreement” back in December 2019 and comprise the largest brownfield PV transaction in Bulgaria so far, according to the company.

The Karadzhalovo plant is the largest single-site PV scheme in Bulgaria and generated 85.56 Gigawatt hours of carbon-neutral energy in 2019.

“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,” Acwa Power's president and chief executive, Paddy Padmanathan, said.

"From those beginnings just a decade ago, we are proud to recognise that approximately 25 per cent of Acwa Power’s total portfolio (based on capital cost) which in the meanwhile has multiplied by four times, comprises of renewable power assets,” he added.

Raiffeisen Bank International was the financial adviser, while CMS Sofia served as the legal adviser to the sellers.

On Monday, Acwa Power reached financial close on a $650 million (Dh2.39 billion) desalination project in Jubail.

The Jubail 3A Independent Water Project is one of the largest public-private partnerships for a desalination scheme in the world. It will operate using reverse osmosis technology and is the fourth such scheme to be commissioned in Saudi Arabia in the last three years