US Solar Fund (USF ), the $320m (£269) renewables fund that put itself in play with a strategic review five months ago, has shortlisted several proposals and will update investors in six to eight weeks.

The renewables fund, which surprised the market with its announcement in October, had planned to finish the process by the end of this month.

In a quarterly update, it said it had ‘engaged with a significant number of parties’ over its options of selling the company, disposing of its assets or appointing a fund manager to replace New Energy Solar of Australia.

‘In order to provide the shortlisted parties with the requisite time to finalise their due diligence and submit binding proposals, the board now expects to update shareholders on the outcome of the strategic review within the next six to eight weeks,’ it said.

At the same time, the company will tell shareholders what it intends to do with the $53.2m it made in January selling its 50% stake in the Mount Signal 2 solar farm in California to MN8, a renewable power fund spun off from Goldman Sachs.

Shares in the USD-denominated specialist fund were unchanged at 80 cents, having fallen 8% in the past six months. They trail on a 17% discount to net asset value that slipped to 96.3 cents per share at 31 December from 96.7 cents at 30 June. They yield 6.9% on quarterly dividends of 1.52 cents that were covered 1.2 times by earnings.