Mills Oakley advises on sale of Queensland solar farm

PRESS RELEASE

National law firm Mills Oakley has advised Spanish renewable energy giant, Elecnor S.A, on the sale of its 25 MW Barcaldine Solar Farm in central Queensland.

The farm has 79,000 panels and its estimated annual output is sufficient to meet the consumption requirements of 5,300 households.

The Mills Oakley team was led by Corporate Advisory partner Mick Coleman in Melbourne, and included special counsels Venn King and Nicole Tumiati, and lawyer Cassandra Taylor.

Mick Coleman said – “I’m delighted Elecnor, as a global renewable infrastructure company, gave Mills Oakley the opportunity to work on their first big M&A transaction in Australia.  This transaction continues Elecnor’s strategy for gaining returns on infrastructure promotion, development and construction.  It’s good to see an increasing pipeline of large scale renewable projects attracting funding in the Australian market.”

Mills Oakley’s first involvement with Barcaldine Solar Farm was advising Elecnor on financing and constructing the project, which reached financial close in December 2015 and completed construction just 12 months later. This phase was led by MO Projects partner Luke Westmore and included a multidisciplinary team from Projects, Corporate, Finance and Tax.

The Barcaldine Solar Farm is one of the first large-scale solar farms in Australia to be funded, constructed and operational.  The project demonstrated the continued falling costs in developing and operating large-scale solar projects in Australia.

The Barcaldine buyer is an Australian investment company managed by British firm Foresight, a leading infrastructure investment and asset manager with over 70 solar PV plants in its portfolio in the UK, southern Europe, Australia and North America.

The sale continues Mills Oakley’s active involvement in the renewable energy sector, having advised on around 15 renewable energy projects over the last 12 months.