Overview
The Renewables Infrastructure Group has announced a total shareholder return for 2016 of 15.7% on a share price basis and 9.3% on a NAV basis. The NAV rose to 100.1p (2015: 99.0p). Excluding the impact of the accelerated payment of an additional quarter’s dividend during the year, NAV per share increased by 2.6p. Dividends of 6.25p were paid and they are targeting an aggregate dividend of 6.40p per share for the year to 31 December 2017.
With new investments of approximately £77.7 million in France and the UK, TRIG’s net generation capacity increased by 8% to 710MW and portfolio value by 15% to £818.7 million across 53 projects. The valuation takes into account the addition of new projects, a reduction in power price forecasts year-on-year, a reduction in discount rates applied to the valuation (reflecting a keen appetite in the market for investment in renewables) and the beneficial impact of movement in foreign exchange rates.
TRIG’s annual electricity production increased by 9.2% in 2016 to 1,469 GWh (including an allocation for compensated downtime), reflecting the increase in the generating portfolio. Total portfolio production was 9.3% below P50 forecasts for the year (2015: 2.3% above). The main driver of this shortfall was wind resource, with grid availability also having an adverse impact. Wind speeds in the UK were significantly below the long-term average in 2016, particularly in March, June, October and November. This was in part mitigated by the portfolio’s geographical and technological diversity: wind in France was within 1% of the long-term average, whilst solar irradiation was fractionally above budget overall. The newly acquired French solar portfolio performed well and exceeded its production target for the year.
TRIG : Renewables Infrastructure held back by low wind speeds in UK