Foresight Solar Fund
Optimising capital allocation
14 March 2024
Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL) celebrated its 10-year anniversary of listing on the London Stock Exchange with decade-high cash distributions from assets of £120.4m in its FY23 results (year end 31 December). FY23 also saw FSFL’s divestment programme come to fruition with the sale of a 50% stake in its Spanish Lorca portfolio at a 21% premium to its holding value. The proceeds of this divestment, along with free cash, were used to pay down the fund’s variable rate debt via its revolving credit facility by £40m and to continue to deliver on the share buyback programme, with half of the £40m being deployed in 2023. FSFL released guidance of a 6% y-o-y increase in its dividend (33% dividend growth since IPO) for FY24 at 8p/share (FY23: 7.55p/share) with dividend cover of 1.5x (FY23: 1.6x). There is significant headroom in the dividend cover to operate further out, even in a falling power price environment. MORE »
Solar energy - the future is here
18 February 2021
Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL) has consistently delivered on its investment objective from its launch in October 2013. It is the largest UK solar player and provides investors with a covered, sustainable and growing dividend, underpinned by subsidised assets in the UK and high-return growth opportunities globally. This continued during the fund’s arguably most challenging few years, amid declining power prices and the COVID-19-triggered economic shock. The solar industry’s growth potential remains huge. The IEA estimates that solar capacity needs to quadruple in the next decade globally (a 20% CAGR) to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The UK’s solar capacity is forecast to more than double within the next 10 years. MORE »