The freshly appointed transitional manager of  ThomasLloyd Energy Impact Trust, which has taken on a new name, reiterated that constructing the problematic ‘RUMS’ solar project will cause the trust significant losses. 

Octopus Energy Generation (OEG), who was formally appointed as the transitional manager on Wednesday, is working with the board of the newly named Asian Energy Impact Trust (AEIT ) to finalise the December 2022 and 30 June valuations, 2022 audit and accounts and 2023 interim report and lift the share suspension, which has been in place for six months.  

Following its own preparatory investigation, OEG, which replaced Thomas Lloyd as investment manager, said the trust would face more than the £13m fall in net present value stated in previous stock exchange announcements.

The £13m fall is based on construction being completed by 31 March 2024, the completed asset’s yield not falling below expectations and the project being refinanced by December 2024 on terms equivalent to or better than those assumed for the purpose of the estimate.

‘Due to the extremely tight timeline for completing the RUMS project, both the board and OEG believe that there is a reasonable likelihood of construction not being fully completed on time,’ the notice said. A full update on OEG’s due diligence will be released as soon as it is available.

The RUMS project continues to cause headaches for the emerging markets renewable infrastructure trust, as the project along with another Indian solar asset under construction mean it could breach its individual investment limit to any one country of 50%.

Yesterday, shareholders voted not to include these two projects when assessing exposure by country, so it will not fall foul of the policy.

Following the construction of the RUMS project, the trust will have 434MW of solar generating capacity in India, 80MW in the Philippines and 6MW in Vietnam.

The trust will have approximately $160m of gearing through its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary platform, SolarArise platform, which is constructing both assets.

The UK Foreign Office is the largest shareholder in the trust, with an 18.4% stake, while former manager ThomasLloyd retains a 12% position, according to Refinitiv data.