The French fund manager Tikehau Capital and the British firm Arjun Infrastructure Partners have acquired a stake in Amarenco Solar, the renewable energy group based in Cork (Ireland). This company has been present in Spain since 2020 and its portfolio includes three photovoltaic solar parks with a combined capacity of 80 megawatts (MW). The transaction involves Tikehau taking a controlling stake and Arjun taking a minority position.
Amarenco’s current shareholders, including Crédit Agricole, will also remain as minority shareholders. The transaction has yet to receive the usual competition and administrative approvals.
This acquisition was possible thanks to the €300 million capital increase, already reported by Legal Dealmaker, in which Amarenco was advised by Herbert Smith freehills, allowing Arjun Infrastructure join alongside a pool of investors from the Crédit Agricole Group (IDIA Capital Investissement, Sofilaro, Grand Sud Ouest Capital and Nord Midi-Pyrénées Développement) and Tikehau Capital, an alternative asset management group, which has made a significant contribution to Amarenco’s growth since 2020.
“Together with my co-founders John Mullins and Olivier Carré, and the entire Amarenco team, we are delighted to welcome Arjun Infrastructure Partners in order to achieve our goals. We are continuing our journey as an independent player while giving us the financial means to realise our projects related to the energy, agricultural and ecological transition, as well as our determination to become a regenerative company,” said Alain Desvigne, CEO of Amarenco.
“We are delighted to partner with Amarenco founders and Tikehau Capital to support the company’s growth ambitions. This is a well-established platform with an experienced management team and a robust pipeline across geographies. It has also demonstrated its ESG leadership by pioneering the ECHO program to regenerate eco-systems and issuing sustainable convertible bonds and has a clear and well-articulated ESG vision going forward, which is fully aligned with our ambitions. Our investors and wider business are very excited to team up with this high-quality team and scalable development platform to accelerate its development across Europe,” said Romain PY, partner at Arjun Infrastructure Partners.
The WFW Madrid team that advised Arjun Infrastructure Partners was led by Corporate partner María Pilar García Guijarro, assisted by Finance partner Rodrigo Berasategui, senior associates Javier Ruffin and Jacobo Hermidas, and associates Jaime Salazar, Pablo Manchado and Beltrán Silva.
Members of WFW´s London office Solange Leandro (partner), Jennifer Charles (partner), Teresa Mcgillivray (trainee solicitor) and Ben Charles (associate), together with the firm´s Paris office Thomas Rabain (partner), Antoine Bois-Minot (senior associate) and Mohamed Douib (associate) also advised on this deal.
