Renato Ravanelli

Wind-generated energy: F2i acquired seven wind parks – “A hub at Italian level”

Wind plants
– Through its Second Fund, F2i acquired seven wind energy production plants operating in Sicily and Calabria from Veronagest, for a total 282 MW wind capacity
– Veronagest’s assets are now merged with the existing assets of E2i – a company owned by F2i (70%) and and Edison (30%) – and Alerion, of which 16% is held by F2i’s Second Fund.

MILAN “Thanks to this transaction, we are now the second biggest wind energy operator, with an over 1,000 MW plant asset.” Renato Ravanelli leads F2i, the infrastructure fund that acquired from Veronagest one of Italy’s major wind energy portfolios: seven wind energy production plants in Sicily and Calabria, with a total 282 MW installed capacity.
The Erg Group, owned by the Garrone family, is still number one in this segment – F2i is however catching up fast. The company managed the transaction (the closing is expected by the end of June) through its Second Fund, which also owns 70% of E2i (30% owned by Edison) – with approximately 600 MW installed capacity and 165 MW under development – and holds a 16% participation in Alerion (259 MW installed capacity). “F2i proved again to be an aggregating entity in various infrastructure segments” Ravanelli explained. Looking at the international competition indicators, we can see that F2i can boast a fairly good positioning as to the level of its infrastructure – the perception of their quality and efficiency however is quite poor mainly due to the small sizes of the operators. Our objective is to aggregate various companies under a strong managerial lead. Gas distribution is a perfect example for this: “2i Rete Gas merged 200 operators – size does matter.”

The strategy applied to the wind energy branch goes hand in hand with the strategy developed for the photovoltaic segment, where F2i’s First Fund – joined with Enel – ranks as the major Italian operators thanks to Ef Solare Italia. “In the wind energy branch – Ravanelli commented – a minimum capacity of 1,000 MW is essential to ensure a unified management of the plants through economies of scales.” F2i’s First Fund acquired Veronagest’s assets (the plants are funded through a project financing by Unicredit, BNP Paribas, Natixis, BBVA and CDP). In the initial two years the plants will be managed through a service agreement with Volta Green Energy, a recently emerged enterprise that the managers created through the acquisition of a company branch of Veronagest.

Fonte: Corriere della Sera