Ence has agreed to sell its solar plant in Puertollano to the Q-Energy fund. This will pay up to 86.5 million euros for the installation, which has a power of 50MW. Ence will point to capital gains of up to 39 million, according to the statement sent to the CNMV.
The operation will involve a fixed payment of 82.5 million and a deferred payment of 4 million more. Therefore, of the 39 million capital gains that Ence expects to collect, 35 million will be generated at the closing of the transaction. The buyer will also assume a net debt of 81.5 million.
This is the last step of a turnaround in its renewables strategy that began recently, when it sold 49% of its energy business to the English fund Ancala for 359 million and 184 million in capital gains.
The operation is still pending the relevant authorization in competition matters. It must also have the green light from Ence’s shareholders’ meeting, which has called an extraordinary summit for next December 14. The three main shareholders – the honorary president, Juan Luis Arregui, with 29.4%, Jose Ignacio Comenge with 6.35% and Víctor Urrutia with 6.23% – have already confirmed that they will vote yes. The operation has, from the outset, the support of shareholders with 41% of the share capital.
Ence, yes, had spun off the Puertollano plant from this operation. And then he claimed that he had started a parallel sale process for this asset. The company had acquired this plant from Iberdrola in 2018 for 184 million.
This extra income for Ence comes like May water at a delicate moment for the firm. So far this year its shares have fallen 40% on the stock market, to 2.26 euros per share at which it closed yesterday.
With the paper part – the firm predicts zero ebitda this year for this business – all its hopes are pinned on its green bet. It calculates that it will reach an ebitda of 70 million and that, in the coming years the weight of this will multiply by three, focused on the production of biomass, but with an eye also on attending the next wind and solar auctions and growing in this side.
