John Laing sells Irish windfarm, buys into German FTTP firms

Infrastructure investor John Laing said it had sold its Glencarbry wind farm in Ireland to Greencoat Renewables for €31.2m (£26.6m) as it continued to reduce its exposure to renewable energy assets.

The sale value represents a 6% premium to book value for the asset at December 31, 2020, and is equivalent to a money multiple on its investment of 1.3 times, the company said on Thursday.

Located in County Tipperary, Glencarbry has a total capacity of 35.6MW. It was acquired by John Laing in 2015 and has an operational track record of over three and a half years.

In a separate announcement, John Laing said it was moving into the German internet market, spending €30m on two acquisitions.

The deal involves buying two regional and telecoms businesses in southern and western Germany - EFN eifel-net Internet-Provider and Jobst NET – both are in the early stages of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) roll-out programmes, focusing on delivering connectivity to under-served suburban and rural communities in Germany.

Laing said it planned to create a single integrated platform through which to invest further in rolling out FTTP.

“Given the potential growth of the roll-out strategy, this platform represents a material opportunity for further investment by John Laing over time, and which could represent a total equity investment in excess of €100m over the next three years,” the company said.