Foresight's Solar Fund to Invest in Italian and Greek PV Projects (Nov 17, 2008)

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Foresight's Solar Fund to Invest in Italian and Greek PV Projects

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November 17, 2008

London, United Kingdom: Foresight's Solar Fund to Invest in Italian and Greek PV Projects

Foresight Group’s European new Solar Fund is to invest in solar photovoltaic opportunities in Italy and Greece, with the intention of expanding to other Southern European markets in the future. Foresight is looking to take advantage of the long term government backed incentives, in the form of feed-in tariffs, and asset-backed projects using established technologies, to build a dedicated portfolio of projects in this fast growing renewable energy sector.

The fund aims to generate returns for investors in the form of annual distributions and capital gains on the sale of assets.

Foresight Group currently manages over €250 million across a number of funds. These include Foresight European Solar Fund and Foresight UK Sustainable Investment Fund, a £22.5 million fund focused on investments in environmental infrastructure.

Foresight's Italian office, located at Palazzo Valadier, Piazza del Popolo in Rome, focuses on identifying and executing investment opportunities in Southern Europe. Foresight’s Italian division is led by Luca Passariello, formerly of Bain & Co, who has been appointed as European General Manager to spearhead the Group’s activities in the region.

Luca Passariello said, “As specialists in environmental infrastructure, Foresight recognises that Italy, currently the fastest growing solar infrastructure market in Europe, represents a significant investment opportunity. We have already secured framework agreements, representing more than 250MWs, with five Italian construction companies in the solar PV sector. We also have relationships in place with several banks which, despite the current financial environment, are interested in funding our projects. We intend to grow our solar portfolio significantly over the next year with the aim of becoming a top-five solar investor in Italy by the end of 2009.”

Bernard Fairman, Managing Director and Founder of Foresight Group, added: “Opening an office in Italy is part of our long term strategy to increase our access to key European markets that are at the forefront of developments in the environmental infrastructure space, in particular solar. The European Solar Fund will enable us to maximise the investment opportunities in Italy and beyond and we are seeing strong interest from institutions and private investors who recognise the return potential of the sector.”