by ENERGY REV • JANUARY 12, 2022
Estonian renewables operator Sunly will merge with Polish solar developer Alseva Group in a share swap transaction and will take aim at a 400MW ready-to-build pipeline in Poland. Sunly will acquire 100% of Alseva in exchange for shares paid in the opposite direction to the latter’s current owner.
They will together seek to build the initial pipeline by 2023 as well as target a longer-term 2GW pipeline over the next five years. Some 51MW of the 400MW initial portfolio holds CfDs from the December 2021 edition of the Polish auctions programme, spread across 32 projects of between 0.56MW and 8MW in size.
For the non-CfD projects, the group will likely pursue PPAs to support their development. Sunly has not yet implemented any merchant strategies in Poland, although it has done so in the Baltics. To fund the first tranche of development, Sunly will launch a capital raise before the end of January. The transaction gives the Estonian company access to not only an expanded portfolio but also to an experienced team in solar project origination and development in the Polish market.
Sunly, which already operates in Poland as well as across the Baltic nations, states its wider pipeline will expand to around 6.7GW as a result of the current deal.
In July 2021, the group raised EUR 28m in a fundraising round which is being used to support further growth in these markets.