Greencoat UK Wind PLC (LON:UKW), which invests in UK wind farms, said its portfolio has continued to generate significant cash this year.
Net cash generation in the first half of the year was £67.5mln in a period in which the company also raised £505.7mln through a share issue and acquired three further wind farms, increasing the portfolio to 35 operating wind farm investments.
READ Greencoat UK Wind completes £126mln acquisition of Cairngorms wind farm
The fund’s gross asset value (GAV) stood at £2,443.1mln at the end of June, up from £2,314.8mln at the end of March, while net asset value stood at £1,868.1mln, equivalent to 123.2p per share, up from £1,520.8mln at the end of March.
The company is targeting a full-year dividend of 6.94p through the payment of four quarterly dividends of 1.735p and has duly declared an unchanged dividend of 1.735p for the second quarter.
“The solid performance and cash generative nature of our portfolio has enabled us once more to increase our dividend in line with RPI [retail price index] whilst maintaining strong dividend cover,” said Tim Ingram, the chairman of Greencoat UK Wind.
The group's investments generated 1,145 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in the first half of 2019.
"During the period we made three high-quality investments, including a £452 million investment in Stronelairg and Dunmaglass wind farms and £145 million in Tom nan Clach, which have grown our generating capacity to 979MW [megawatts],” Ingram said.
"The pipeline of acquisitions remains healthy and with gearing at 24% of GAV, we are well placed to take advantage of the attractive growth opportunities available to us," Ingram added.
Shares in Greencoat were unchanged at 139.2p.