Burges Salmon advises Bluefield Solar on new strategic partnership with GLIL Infrastructure

Independent UK law firm Burges Salmon has advised Bluefield Solar Income Fund (“Bluefield Solar”), the London listed income fund focused primarily on acquiring and managing UK solar energy assets, on its new long-term strategic partnership with UK-based infrastructure fund GLIL Infrastructure via a newly formed joint venture.

The partnership will evolve through three distinct phases:

• Phase one, which is already underway, sees both parties acquire a portfolio of 58 operational assets with Bluefield Solar and GLIL investing £20 million and £200 million respectively into a 247MW UK-based solar portfolio from Lightsource bp. The transaction requires approval under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 and is expected to complete in early 2024. This represents the partnership’s first acquisition, with Burges Salmon’s Energy Transition team, led by corporate partner Jonathan Eves and senior associate Bethan Penrhyn-Jones, also acting on the deal.
• In the second phase, the partnership has provisionally agreed to acquire a 50% stake in a separate portfolio of more than 100MW of operational UK solar energy assets currently owned by Bluefield Solar. The deal is expected to complete in the first half of 2024.
• In phase three, GLIL and Bluefield Solar have provisionally agreed to fund a selection of Bluefield Solar’s development pipeline, the identified assets are expected to be grid-connected over the next two to three years.

The Burges Salmon team advising Bluefield Solar on its partnership arrangements with GLIL was led by partner Malcolm Donald and associate Ellie Shanahan.

Malcolm comments: “Following the call at COP28 for solar capacity to triple by 2030, it’s really encouraging to see a partnership such as this one come to fruition, pooling resources to invest in existing assets and develop new projects across the UK. It has been a pleasure working with Bluefield Solar on this exciting new stage in its development, and to have been involved in the establishment of the new partnership.”

Neil Wood, Partner at Bluefield Partners adds: “GLIL is the ideal partner for a company like ours and leverages our multi-decade view of solar asset management. Burges Salmon’s knowledge and experience in establishing partnerships for solar energy acquisitions and investments was vital and we’re grateful for the team’s excellent guidance throughout this project.”