Bluefield Solar Income Fund Ltd (LSE:BSIF, FRA:5B3) chair Michael Gibbons has highlighted 'another period of good operational performance' for the renewable energy investment company, whilst noting that an ongoing sale process is progressing, in line with expectations.
"We are pleased to have seen good interest from parties wishing to participate in the Formal Sale Process and have now narrowed this list of potential bidders down to a targeted number with more focused due diligence progressing with this group," Gibbons said in Tuesday's interim results statement, for the six months ended 31 December.
James Armstrong, managing partner at Bluefield Partners LLP, meanwhile, added: "Bluefield Solar continues to deliver on the primary objective launched at its IPO in July 2013, namely the payment of a market-leading dividend from the production of electricity from solar PV in the UK.
"However, the wider capital market environment has changed materially and with it, a material shift in the growth prospects of the publicly listed yield-focused renewable generators."
The financial results statement itself, as anticipated, confirmed that net asset value had fallen over the first half of the financial year as lower power price assumptions and a higher discount rate outweighed what was described as good operational performance.
Operationally, the wholly owned portfolio produced 277.8GWh of solar generation and 73.3GWh from wind in the six months, with results below forecast partly due to grid outages and downtime. The group highlighted continued build-out of its development pipeline, with 25MW of battery storage under construction and a total construction-and-development pipeline of 2.9GW.
The London-listed renewables income fund posted a NAV of 107.80p per share at 31 December 2025, down from 116.56p at June year-end, taking net assets to £638.3 million.
The board also declared a 2.25p per share first interim dividend for FY25/26, which chair Michael Gibbons noted is “fully covered”. The period’s total shareholder return was -24.90%, with the shares at 68.5p at the end of December.
On valuation, the directors increased the portfolio discount rate to 8.50% from 8.00%, a move they said reduced NAV by about 2.5p per share.
The company also pointed to a further headwind after the period end, saying the government’s decision to switch Renewable Obligation Certificates and Feed-in Tariffs from RPI to CPI indexation in April 2026 is expected to cut NAV by around 2%, to be reflected in the next valuation.