Italy’s Eni abandons race to buy RTR

Despite recent efforts to boost its solar energy business, the Italian oil giant has decided not to acquire RTR’s 343 MW solar plant portfolio.

The headquarters of Eni in Rome, Italy.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Paolo Monti

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Italian oil company, Eni has abandoned plans to acquire Italy’s PV asset manager RTR, a unit of U.K.-based private equity firm, Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd (TFCP), which owns a 343 MW solar power plant portfolio in Italy.

In a statement to pv magazine, Eni’s press office confirmed that it has decided not to continue in the auction to acquire RTR, as previously reported by Reuters. Last week, Italian energy company, gas and electricity provider A2A, also told pv magazine it was no longer interested in buying RTR.

With the exit of these two companies from the auction, the only two shortlisted bidders are now Italian power utility, Enel and U.K. oil company, BP, according to Italian news portal, Energia Oltre.

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Both companies declined to comment on the matter. The CEO of Enel, Francesco Starace said in February that the company was looking with interest at RTR’s portfolio, which consists 134 solar parks with a combined capacity of 334 MW across more than 100 municipalities in Italy.

Terra Firma began the process of selling RTR at the beginning of this year. At the time, Bloomberg reported that the company’s market value was estimated by Terra Firma at around €1.5 billion ($1.75 billion).

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