Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Enertronica S.p.A (Enertronica), an Italian listed company, on the sale of 70% of the corporate capital of two Namibian project companies (Sertum Energy Namibia and Unisun Energy) to a Namibian company owned by Canadian Solar.

Sertum and Unison have the rights to build, connect and operate two solar PV parks currently under construction in Namibia. Enertronica will retain its role as EPC contractor and operate and manage the parks for five years post construction.

The transaction forms part of Enertronica’s build operate and transfer (BOT) strategy, which focuses on the development, engineering, construction and disposal of small to medium sized solar PV parks, predominantly located in Africa and Latin America. Projects are generally bundled through bank facilities or binding funding agreements and sold as packages.

The innovative BOT model adopted by Enertronica will benefit numerous subsidiaries in the group. Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts related to the model include the supply of inverters from Elettronica Santerno, which is owned by Enertronica, and trackers directly produced by Enertronica. The model also provides that EPC operations will be carried out by Enertronica Construction Namibia.

Luigi Costa, senior associate in Milan, Norton Rose Fulbright, comments:

“Namibia is an emerging and exciting market for international renewable energy companies; we are seeing increasing appetite for investment in the country. This is the first transaction to implement Enertronica’s BOT strategy, and has helped boost Enertronica Group companies involved in the manufacture of inverters and trackers used in the construction of solar PV projects.”

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by Luigi Costa, banking and energy Senior associate based in Milan, supervised by partner Arturo Sferruzza. The team has been working with Enertronica for over four years on a number of matters.