(Photo: Andrew Aitchison)
JLEN Environmental Assets Group (LON:JLEN) - the London-listed environmental asset investment vehicle formerly affiliated to global developer John Laing (LON:JLG) - is to join the UK's premium midcap equities index FTSE 250 on June 22, the fund said on Thursday (June 11).
The index admission for the fund founded in March 2014, currently under the advisory mandate of Foresight Group, comes on the back of a rise in its market capitalization by 10.5% from £549 million ($700 million) to £607 million, as pan-European efforts to de-carbonize boosted its renewable energy investments.
JLEN's market capitalization increase was also helped in no small part by a £57 million equity capital raise via oversubscribed placings during the year to March 31, 2020. Net asset value (NAV), i.e. the fund's assets minus the value of its liabilities, also rose 2.4% year-on-year to £533 million.
Latest financials revealed a JLEN portfolio of 30 projects comprising of onshore wind (36% of holdings by value), anaerobic digestion (25%), solar (23%), hydro, battery storage (1%), and waste and wastewater processing facilities and ventures (15%), primarily located in the UK, France and Sweden.
The performance of wind power projects that constitute bulk of its holdings was particularly instrumental in boosting JLEN’s portfolio value which rose by 2.6% on an annualized basis to £537 million.
Giving details, the fund said electricity generation from its wind assets (51% by GWh energy generated) was 3.9% above budget, helped by good wind speeds and strong performance in the final quarter of the year.
During the financial year ending March 31, overall generation from the renewable energy portfolio was 904GWh, 3.0% over budget, excluding JLEN’s Bio Collectors asset which it has owned for just one quarter.
Commenting on financials, Richard Morse, Chairman of JLEN, said the fund has witnessed sound operational performance in most sectors of its portfolio.
"We have undertaken new investments that have further diversified the portfolio, increasing the capacity to more than 300MW, shortly after year end and broadening our contribution to the world of sustainable energy.
"All of this has been against a backdrop of falling energy prices. The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated that decline in energy prices, but the crisis has not materially affected operations for most of our assets."
Morse also noted that in an "extraordinary year featuring falling power prices and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic", JLEN has provided "reliable income" for investors while continuing to diversify its portfolio.
