Germany’s Aquila Capital to acquire Portuguese hydropower portfolio

Aquila Capital, a German alternative asset management division of Aquila Group, has agreed with electricity supplier Energias de Portugal SA (EDP) to acquire a portfolio of 21 small hydropower plants in northern and central Portugal with a total capacity of about 100 megawatts.

The new hydropower portfolio consists of 14 run-of-river units and seven reservoir plants. It is diversified across 10 river systems and all plants have been in operation for several years. The assets also benefit from attractive feed-in tariffs financed by end consumers, improving the predictability of investors’ returns.

EDP said it was selling its EDP Small Hydro SA subsidiary in a deal valued at $187.2 million. The sale was part of its strategy to sell non-core operations in Portugal.

This latest transaction follows Aquila Capital’s first investment in Portugal’s renewable infrastructure, which was the acquisition of a photovoltaics portfolio with a capacity of 170 megawatts per hour at the end of 2017.