AZUR SOLAR and Bluefield Partners LLP agree on £20m funding deal to offer free Solar PV Energy Contracting to British Businesses for 25 years

Leading solar PV company AZUR SOLAR has signed an agreement with Bluefield Partners LLP (Bluefield), the specialist solar PV fund manager based in London, on a strategic partnership that will see Bluefield financing a large number of new AZUR SOLAR installed 50kWp and 150kWp solar PV installations on industrial, commercial and agricultural roofs over the next six months. Through the deal, these will be installed for free ahead of the Government’s FIT change at the end of March 2012 and enable roof owners and tenants to benefit via receiving clean energy savings without deploying their own capital.

With an established reputation as one of Europe’s most successful solar PV manufacturers, system integrators and on-roof solar developers, AZUR SOLAR has a growing list of prestigious reference sites. This made it the perfect industry partner for Bluefield who see a very attractive immediate opportunity in the UK solar market. Bluefield is backed by leading UK investors Jon Moulton and William Doughty and the partnership with AZUR SOLAR will be a significant part of their UK focused solar PV strategy.

“This is excellent news for our UK Commercial Project team, the company and the solar sector in general,” stated Robert Markus Feldmann, Managing Director for AZUR SOLAR Systems Ltd. “We are totally focused on getting the right commercial roofs commissioned before the Governments next FIT milestone date. We already have a solid and growing pipeline of solar projects, so now having independent financing available means that when we identify a suitable site, we can provide the roof owner with a comprehensive 25 year energy contracting solution.”

Feldmann continued: “Not only is the energy derived from a leading edge clean solar PV solution on the customer’s own roof, owned by a fund managed by Bluefield, at the same time the energy costs are locked in for the same period without any capital outlay whatsoever. This is of great value for most of our commercial customers, who are getting penalised year-on-year by rising energy costs. AZUR SOLAR will also operate and manage the system, thus end-to-end quality and reliability of supply is assured.”

James Armstrong, a partner at Bluefield, commenting on the announcement said: “We are delighted to teaming up with AZUR SOLAR. It already has an enviable track record, a management team with real strength and experience and outstanding products. The management teams share the same high ambition and expect to establish a leading position in the UK solar PV rooftop market over the next few months.”

Recent prestigious AZUR SOLAR projects have included the UK’s largest self-funded rooftop installation for The Body Shop International in West Sussex; a massive distribution centre for Staples in Northamptonshire; an initial six branches for Covers Builders Merchants in the South East; plus projects with SEGRO / Slough Estates.

Robert Markus Feldmann concluded: “The environmental benefits of solar PV are increasingly being appreciated, but for many customers having the capital available to fund a project has been a limiting factor. Now they have the potential to obtain clean renewable electricity on their own roof via a third party funding partner and reap the benefits associated with reduced carbon emissions. For investors, solar PV represents a solid financial return on investment. Improved economies of scale and reduced overall system costs continue to encourage businesses and homeowners throughout the country to install renewable solar PV energy solutions – but if they don’t have the capital readily available they can now benefit through this partnership, with the fund providing the capital for investment and the electricity generated at highly attractive terms.”

For further information on AZUR SOLAR please go to www.azur-solar.co.uk, call 01753 257410 or email info@azur-solar.co.uk.

For further media information or images, please contact Douglas Millard Tel: 01256 861372 or douglas@blackchilli.co.uk

Bluefield attracts new high profile investors to its European solar PV asset management business

Bluefield Partners LLP (“Bluefield”) has announced the appointments of non-executives Jon Moulton, Chairman of Better Capital and William Doughty, Executive Chairman of Semperian Group. Both are also acquiring minority stakes in the partnership.

Jon Moulton, an experienced renewable energy investor, brings over 30 years’ private equity experience and is recognised for his leadership of UK private equity business Alchemy Partners, and more recently Better Capital. William Doughty is the founding CEO and current Executive Chairman of Europe’s largest Public Private Partnership investment business, Semperian Group.

Bluefield is a private equity asset manager focused on investment in the European solar energy sector. The entry of these two high profile investors to the sector is a strong indication of the ongoing attractiveness of European solar.

Commenting on the announcement, James Armstrong, a partner at Bluefield said…“we are delighted with Jon and William’s involvement and view their skills as highly complementary and relevant to the investment strategy Bluefield is executing. We have a market leading team that will enable us to exploit the growing opportunity in European solar infrastructure. We are pleased that such experienced private equity and infrastructure investors share the same belief in the Bluefield strategy”.

William Doughty said…“The Bluefield team, whom I knew from an earlier specialist solar fund, come with leading experience in the solar PV market in Europe, and are positioned to play a major role in the emergence of this sector as a mainstream target for conservative, yield focused, financial investors. I look forward to working closely with the team in their investment and management activities during the coming years”.

Jon Moulton said… “Bluefield has developed a scalable deployment model in the solar market and has a built a proven team that, I believe, will enable them to build a successful asset management business”.

Bluefield was established in 2009 by experienced renewable and conventional energy finance professionals and has already teamed up with advisors including Javier Herrero Sorriqueta, the former CEO of leading energy and renewable energy utility, Iberdrola, and Chicco Testa, former Chairman of global energy utility, Enel.

Notes:

Bluefield is a specialist asset manager for solar energy infrastructure. It is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority. For further information on Bluefield please contact info@bluefieldllp.com, or visit us at www.bluefieldllp.com.

BIOGRAPHY
William Doughty | Non Executive Member

William Doughty is an infrastructure and fund management specialist and has committed significant personal funding to Bluefield. Currently the Executive Chairman of Semperian Group, the largest PPP (“Public Private Partnership”) investor in Europe, managing a GBP 1.4 billion infrastructure fund, with 106 projects under management, Mr. Doughty founded Semperian, formerly Trillium PPP Investment Partners Limited, as CEO in 2007 whilst working as board director of Land Securities Trillium, responsible for its Infrastructure and PPP activities. He was personally responsible for the establishment, management and sale to Land Securities of the Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund (“SMIF”) and previously responsible for the management and realisation of a GBP 3 billion infrastructure portfolio for Abbey National. Mr. Doughty’s previous board positions include Land Securities Trillium, Sydney Airport, Macquarie’s Airport Group and Portsmouth Water. He was a private investor in the solar energy Fund managed by the Bluefield senior executives prior to the founding of Bluefield in 2009.

BIOGRAPHY
Jon Moulton | Non Executive Member

Jon Moulton brings over 30 years' specialist experience in private equity investing and has committed significant personal funding to Bluefield. He is currently the Chairman of Better Capital, founded in 2009. This followed 13 years as the founding Managing Partner of Alchemy Partners, where he was responsible for building the business to become a leading UK private equity investor and investing over GBP 2 billion with a focus on turnaround and distressed assets. Mr. Moulton's prior responsibilities included his role as Director at Apax Partners, Managing Partner at Schroder Ventures and Managing Director at Citicorp Venture Capital. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and is a well known representative of the private equity industry and has been a source of government and media consultation on wide ranging private equity and tax issues. He has recently been appointed a member of the Advisory Board for the £1.4bn UK Regional Growth Fund. He is Chairman of FinnCap, the stockbrokers.

BIOGRAPHY
Javier Herrero Sorriqueta | Senior Energy & Regulatory Advisor

Mr Herrero is the former CEO and Vice-chairman of Iberdrola, the leading Spanish energy utility. During his 36 years at Iberdrola his responsibilities included the development of the first Spanish National Electric Plan and leading negotiations with the Spanish Government in the liberalisation of the electricity sector. Mr. Herrero has also served on the Board of Portuguese energy utility EDP, oil and gas utility GALP, Spanish Red Electrica de España and the Spanish electricity market operator, OMEL. Mr. Herrero is currently a Managing Partner of MCH Private Equity and also manages a number of personal interests in renewable energies.

BIOGRAPHY
Chicco Testa | Senior Energy & Utilities Advisor

Mr. Testa has 15 years of leadership experience in energy and utilities. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Enel S.p.A, the 2nd largest electric utility company globally, and monopoly owner of the Italian National electricity grid. As Chairman, Mr. Testa oversaw the EUR15bln listing of Enel, which remains Europe's largest IPO. Mr. Testa has since taken senior responsibilities in the Advisory Board of Carlyle Europe, the Board of Allianz S.p.A and as Chairman of the Organising Committee of the 20th World Energy Congress, promoted by the World Energy Council. Mr Testa is currently also a Managing Director of Rothschild S.p.A (Italy).

BIOGRAPHY
Giovanni Simoni | Senior Solar Industry & Technical Advisor

Eng. Simoni has over 25 years experience in the solar industry, is the Chairman of the Grid Parity Project Association, founding Chairman of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (the “EPIA”) and CEO of Kenergia Srl, a leading Technical Advisory company specialised in the solar energy sector. In addition, Eng. Simoni has held a wide range of professional positions including Chairing the Expert Group on Renewable Energies of the International Energy Agency (the “IEA”) and Chairing the Executive Committee of the Bilateral Agreement on renewable energy between Italy and USA.

BIOGRAPHY
Anthony Williams | Non-Executive Chairman

Dr. Williams is a financial risk management specialist and has committed significant personal funding to Bluefield. He was formerly a Partner and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs & Co. where he worked for over 10 years. During his time at Goldman Sachs, he was responsible for building the firm's Fixed Income Arbitrage and Swaps businesses. In addition to his positions as Global Head of Fixed Income Arbitrage and Global Co-Head of Swaps, during his tenure Dr. Williams took responsibility for managing risk across the firm's global Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities trading activities as Chair of the Risk Committee for the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division. Previously, he held a Research Fellowship in Radio Astronomy at St John's College Cambridge where he was Director of Studies in Mathematics for Natural Sciences. Dr. Williams lives in London and has a BA, MA and PhD from Cambridge University where he studied Physics.

BIOGRAPHY
Giovanni Terranova | Director, Investments

Giovanni is an energy finance specialist with over 10 years banking, advisory and private equity experience and over 6 years experience in energy and renewable energies. Giovanni has participated in the financing of over EUR8 billion of energy transactions globally. Giovanni’s previous responsibilities include: Investment Director for Foresight Group, taking leading roles in the project financing of the solar energy portfolio for the Foresight European Solar Fund; Director, Energy Group at Fortis Bank with a significant focus on renewable energies including establishing the Bank’s competence centre in solar energy; Assistant Manager in KPMG\’s Transaction Services team; and, Senior Consultant in PWC\’s Financial Management team. Giovanni has served as President of the Board of Directors on two Italian solar energy companies. He has an MBA from Luiss School of Management, Rome and MSc in Power Engineering. Giovanni has presented at a number of international renewable energy conferences and published research on the solar energy sector in 1998.

BIOGRAPHY
Mike Rand | Director, Investments

Mike is an energy and infrastructure investment specialist with over 10 years experience in finance and investment, including over 8 years experience in the energy sector. Mike has participated in the financing of energy and infrastructure transactions of total value approximately EUR1.4 billion across Europe, America and Africa. Mike’s previous responsibilities include: Investment Director for Foresight Group, taking leading roles in equity investment and project financing of the solar energy portfolio for the Foresight European Solar Fund; Principal Banker in the Energy Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”), with a particular focus on renewable energy; and, Investment Associate at Actis Capital LLP, formerly CDC Group. During his career Mike has taken responsibility for the management of a number of equity portfolios in the energy sector and his experience includes project mergers, exits and restructurings. Mike has also gained exposure to renewable energy regulatory development through his responsibilities at the EBRD. Mike has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University and has presented at a number of international renewable energy conferences.