Prothea announced today that its customers have entered into a definitive agreement with Kirchner Solar GmbH for the purchase of Sonnen Systeme Italia S.r.l, an Italian company owning and operating a portfolio of 6,7 MW dual-axis solar photovoltaic parks near Alessandria

Prothea, an independent renewable energy advisory firm, announced today that its customers have entered into a definitive agreement with Kirchner Solar GmbH for the purchase of the 100% stake of Sonnen Systeme Italia S.r.l, an Italian company owning and operating a portfolio of 6,7 MW dual-axis solar photovoltaic parks near Alessandria (Piedmont region) in northern Italy.

Prothea acted as exclusive buyer side advisor to a partnership of three leading alternative asset infrastructure funds with over €500M in assets under management. The buyer has taken over the existing loan agreement in place with Mediocredito Italiano as well, with an overall leverage around 60%.

Sonnen Systeme Italia S.r.l. is a company previously controlled by Kirchner Solar GmbH, one of the pioneers of the solar industry and one of the leading providers of biaxial tracked photovoltaic systems worldwide. On top of the execution of the acquisition of the plants, Prothea has assisted its clients in managing a corporate restructuring in order to transfer a branch of business not related to the electricity generation activity. Prothea will manage the assets on behalf of the buyer in association with Geosol Italia.

The solar parks comprise three group of ground mounted photovoltaic plants which are expected to produce over 1.700 kWh/kWp per year, for a total yearly electricity generation above 11,3 GWh. The plants adopt the dual-axis tracking systems solution developed by Kirchner Solar Group in cooperation with SMA Solar Technology AG that enable stable and predictable solar power yields which lie up to 45% above the yields of fixed installation. Optimal alignment is made possible by a precise astronomical control mechanism which can plot the course of the sun from any geographical location at a given time of the year.

"The closing of this deal is a sign that even in difficult times, Italian solar energy is attracting debt and equity finance. Even more interestingly, thanks to our technical expertise, we have been able to evaluate the goodness of the technological solutions deployed at the solar parks allowing our clients to maximizes revenues from the operation of such assets in northern Italy." said Marco Sartor, one of the Directors of Prothea.

Prothea is an active advisory firm providing strategic and financial advice to worldwide players in the renewable energy and infrastructure markets. This is the third significant recent transaction in the photovoltaic technology on which Prothea has advised. In the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2013 Prothea advised Econergy and VEI Green respectively on two transactions for the acquisition of 7MW and 6MW solar photovoltaic assets.