Northleaf Capital Partners (“Northleaf”), a leading global private markets investment firm, today announced that funds under its management are divesting their majority interest in NCP Mula Solar (Spain), S.L. (“Mula”), a 494 MWp solar photovoltaic plant located in Murcia, Spain. This successful exit reflects the completion of Northleaf’s value creation plan for Mula and will generate significant cash proceeds for Northleaf’s investors. The transaction was conducted alongside minority investment partner Qualitas Energy in a joint sale to China Three Gorges (Spain), S.L.U., an indirect subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation, China’s leading clean energy group.
Mula is one of Europe’s largest operational solar plants and has a highly contracted financial profile, courtesy of an attractive long-term pay-as-produced power purchase agreement with an investment-grade counterparty and financing with top-tier banks. Mula benefits from some of the highest solar irradiation levels in Spain, robust transmission networks and the capacity to accommodate further renewable energy development.
Funds managed by Northleaf acquired a controlling interest in Mula in 2018 and oversaw the plant’s construction and optimization before launching a structured sale process in late 2023.
“Northleaf’s successful sale of Mula underscores our ability to consistently deliver value by focusing on mid-market infrastructure assets with stable cashflow, strong yield and inflation linkage,” said Roderick Gadsby, Managing Director & Head of European Infrastructure at Northleaf. “Our approach to bilaterally sourcing, prudently growing, de-risking, and opportunistically exiting core infrastructure assets is how we achieve attractive returns for our investors across market cycles.”
Closing of the transaction is expected to take place in early 2025.
Northleaf was advised on the transaction by Société Générale (financial), Watson Farley & Williams (legal), E&Y (accounting & tax), and DNV (technical).
