ACCIONA has reached an agreement to sell its five solar thermal plants in Spain (with a combined capacity of 250MW) to ContourGlobal plc. The transaction amounts to €1.09 billion, which could increase by €27 million, to €1.12 billion, if certain milestones are met.

Once completed, the deal will enable the ACCIONA group to reduce debt by €760 million this year.

The disposal of the Spanish solar thermal assets (Palma del Río I and II in Córdoba, Majadas in Cáceres, and Alvarado and Orellana in Badajoz) rebalances ACCIONA's portfolio towards its international business, which will reach 50% of generation EBITDA.

Following the deal, ACCIONA will have a total of 8,772MW of power generation assets, of which 84% are wind farms. The company also has a growing photovoltaic business, as well as hydroelectric and biomass-fired capacity. In solar thermal technology, ACCIONA indirectly owns the 64MW Nevada Solar One plant (USA) through ACCIONA Energy International.

The sale is subject to approval by Spain's National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) and by the General Meeting of Shareholders of ContourGlobal plc. The controlling shareholder of ContourGlobal plc, ContourGlobal L.P., with a 71% stake, has made an irrevocable commitment to vote in favour of the deal.

ContourGlobal plc is an independent operator of power generation plants with facilities in 19 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa totalling approximately 4,100MW of capacity.