Schroders Greencoat is leading the race to acquire Toucan Energy, a large solar farm operator that collapsed a year ago, according to reports.

The infrastructure fund manager has become the leading contender to acquire Toucan’s, 513MW of UK solar capacity Sky News reported. It is unclear whether talks are exclusive and broker Jefferies said it was ‘highly unlikely’ to involve the Greencoat UK Wind (UKW ) and Greencoat Renewables (GRP ) investment companies.

However, Jefferies analyst Matthew Hose said if a transaction is completed it could help underpin valuations at other London-listed solar funds, such as Bluefield Solar Income (BSIF ), Foresight Solar (FSFL ) and NextEnergy Solar (NESF ), whose shares have slumped to wide discounts in a sector-wide de-rating this year caused by high inflation and rising interest rates.

Hose said the Toucan portfolio held projects benefiting from government incentives known as renewables obligation certificates, with 1.4 ROCs per MW, which was similar to the UK portfolios of these three funds. ‘As such, an attractive sale price on a £m per MW basis has the potential to meaningfully validate the marks, and so would provide support to their current languishing share prices,’ Hose explained.

Shares in the trio were little changed on Monday morning, trading 17%-24% below net asset value, but Ireland-focused Greencoat Renewables rose 1.9% to 90 euros.

Other parties which had expressed interest in Toucan are said to include UK infrastructure investor GLIL and Hong Kong giant CK Infrastructure Holdings, whose property arm successfully bid for Civitas Social Housing this year.

Toucan, one of Britain’s largest solar farm operators, fell into administration a year ago amid a scandal that forced the leader of Thurrock council in Essex to resign.

The council, Toucan’s main creditor, had invested a reported £655m into associated businesses in the years before the venture’s collapse. 

Schroders bought a majority stake in Greencoat, one of Europe’s largest renewable energy investors, in December 2021. The FTSE 100 fund firm took a 75% stake, integrating it into Schroders Capital, its private markets division.

Schroders declined to comment.