26 July 2018
Terra Firma has today announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell RTR, the Italian solar energy platform, to F2i, the Italian infrastructure investor.
Terra Firma initially acquired a small portfolio of solar energy assets which became RTR in 2011. Since then, under Terra Firma’s ownership, RTR has completed a series of bolt-on acquisitions and more than doubled its production capacity, from 144MW in 2011 to 334MW across 134 production sites today.
Terra Firma took a collection of assets and built a platform around them by putting in place the staff, systems and a strategy to make RTR the leading independent solar energy company in Italy with a top management team. Despite regulatory, macroeconomic and political challenges over the years, Terra Firma has worked closely with this team to create a business earning more than €130m of EBITDA in 2017.
Terra Firma was advised by Cantor Fitzgerald, Jefferies, J.P. Morgan, UniCredit, Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners and Moroni & Partners.
Andrew Geczy, Chief Executive of Terra Firma, said:
“Today’s agreement will enable us to fully realise our investment in RTR. We developed RTR from a small collection of assets into the leading independent solar energy company in Italy, and have more than doubled the amount of energy it produces. Both RTR and Terra Firma have shown creativity and tenacity in navigating a complicated regulatory environment and changing energy market to deliver this positive result for our investors.”
Ingmar Wilhelm, Chairman and CEO of RTR, said:
“With the powerful backing from Terra Firma we built RTR from the ground up, using the operational and strategic expertise of a great Italian team to drive growth through selective acquisitions, and now is just the right time to open up the next era of solar power generation with a new long term investor. This is an exciting time in the Italian and European solar energy market, and the new owner has a great platform for accelerated future growth and consolidation.”
Renato Ravanelli, CEO of F2i, said:
“Thanks to the overall scale of production reached with this acquisition, equal to more than 800 MW, F2i becomes Europe’s third largest producer of electrical power from solar energy. The noteworthy operating and financial efficiencies of scale achieved will also make it one of the continent’s most efficient operators.”