Note 1.- Nature of the business
Atlantica Yield plc (“Atlantica” or the “Company”) was incorporated in England and Wales as a private limited company on December 17, 2013 under the name Abengoa Yield Limited. On March 19, 2014, the Company was re-registered as a public limited company, under the name Abengoa Yield plc. On May 13, 2016, the change of the Company´s registered name to Atlantica Yield plc was filed with the Registrar of Companies in the United Kingdom.
Atlantica is a total return company that owns, manages and acquires renewable energy, efficient natural gas, electric transmission lines and water assets focused on North America (the United States and Mexico), South America (Peru, Chile and Uruguay) and EMEA (Spain, Algeria and South Africa).
Atlantica’s shares began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “ABY” on June 13, 2014. The symbol changed to “AY” on November 11, 2017.
On March 9, 2018 and on November 27, 2018, Algonquin Power & Utilities (“Algonquin”) announced that it completed the acquisition from Abengoa S.A, (“Abengoa”) of a 25% and 16.47% equity interest in Atlantica, respectively. Algonquin is the largest shareholder of the Company which currently owns a 41.47% stake in Atlantica Yield. Algonquin does not consolidate the Company in its consolidated financial statements.
During 2016, the Company closed the acquisition of a 13% stake in Solacor 1/2 from the JGC Corporation (“JGC”), which reduced the JGC´s ownership in Solacor 1/2 to 13%, and of an 80% stake in Fotovoltaica Solar Sevilla, S.A. (“Seville PV”) from Abengoa, a 1 MW solar photovoltaic plant in Spain.
On February 28, 2017, the Company closed the acquisition of a 12.5% interest in a 114-mile transmission line in the U.S. from Abengoa. The asset will receive a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) regulated rate of return, and is currently under development, with Commercial Operation Date (“COD”) expected in 2020.
During the year 2018, the Company completed the following acquisitions:
| - | On February 28, 2018, the Company closed the acquisition of a 100% stake in a 4 MW hydroelectric power plant in Perú (“Mini-Hydro”) for approximately $9 million; |
| - | On December 11, 2018, the Company closed the acquisition of a 66kV transmission line in operation in Chile (“Chile TL3”) for approximately $6 million; |
| - | On October 10, 2018, the Company completed the acquisition of a 5% stake in a natural gas transportation in Mexico (Pemex Transportation System or “PTS”). Consideration for this 5% stake, which amounts to approximately $7 million, will be disbursed progressively as construction progresses; |
| - | On December 14, 2018, the Company closed the acquisition of a 100% stake in a 50 MW on-shore wind plant in Uruguay (“Melowind”) for approximately $45 million; |
| - | On December 28, 2018, the Company completed the acquisition of a transmission line, which is an extension of ATN (“ATN expansion 1”) for approximately $16 million. |
The following table provides an overview of the concessional assets the Company owned as of December 31, 2018:
Assets | Type | Ownership | Location | Currency(8) | Capacity (Gross) | Counterparty Credit Ratings(9) | COD | Contract Years Left (13) |
| | | | | | | | | |
Solana | Renewable (Solar) | 100% Class B(1) | Arizona (USA) | USD | 280 MW | A-/A2/A- | 2013 | 25 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Mojave | Renewable (Solar) | 100% | California (USA) | USD | 280 MW | D/WR/D | 2014 | 21 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Solaben 2 & 3 | Renewable (Solar) | 70%(2) | Spain | Euro | 2x50 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2012 | 19/18 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Solacor 1 & 2 | Renewable (Solar) | 87%(3) | Spain | Euro | 2x50 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2012 | 18/18 |
| | | | | | | | | |
PS10/PS20 | Renewable (Solar) | 100% | Spain | Euro | 31 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2007& 2009 | 13/15 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Helioenergy 1 & 2 | Renewable (Solar) | 100% | Spain | Euro | 2x50 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2011 | 18/18 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Helios 1 & 2 | Renewable (Solar) | 100% | Spain | Euro | 2x50 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2012 | 19/19 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Solnova 1, 3 & 4 | Renewable (Solar) | 100% | Spain | Euro | 3x50 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2010 | 16/16/17 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Solaben 1 & 6 | Renewable (Solar) | 100% | Spain | Euro | 2x50 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2013 | 20/20 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Kaxu | Renewable (Solar) | 51%(4) | South Africa | Rand | 100 MW | BB/Baa3/BB+(10) | 2015 | 16 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Palmatir | Renewable (Wind) | 100% | Uruguay | USD | 50 MW | BBB/Baa2/BBB-(11) | 2014 | 15 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Cadonal | Renewable (Wind) | 100% | Uruguay | USD | 50 MW | BBB/Baa2/BBB-(11) | 2014 | 16 |
| | | | | | | | | |
ACT | Efficient natural gas | 100% | Mexico | USD | 300 MW | BBB+/ Baa3/BBB+ | 2013 | 14 |
| | | | | | | | | |
ATN (12) | Transmission line | 100% | Peru | USD | 365 miles | BBB+/A3/BBB+ | 2011 | 22 |
| | | | | | | | | |
ATS | Transmission line | 100% | Peru | USD | 569 miles | BBB+/A3/BBB+ | 2014 | 25 |
| | | | | | | | | |
ATN 2 | Transmission line | 100% | Peru | USD | 81 miles | Not rated | 2015 | 14 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Quadra 1 | Transmission line | 100% | Chile | USD | 49 miles | Not rated | 2014 | 16 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Quadra 2 | Transmission line | 100% | Chile | USD | 32 miles | Not rated | 2014 | 16 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Palmucho | Transmission line | 100% | Chile | USD | 6 miles | BBB+/Baa1/BBB+ | 2007 | 19 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Chile TL3 | Transmission line | 100% | Chile | USD | 50 miles | A+/A1/A | 1993 | Regulated |
| | | | | | | | | |
Skikda | Water | 34.2%(5) | Algeria | USD | 3.5 M ft3/day | Not rated | 2009 | 15 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Honaine | Water | 25.5%(6) | Algeria | USD | 7 M ft3/ day | Not rated | 2012 | 19 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Seville PV | Renewable (Solar) | 80%(7) | Spain | Euro | 1 MW | A-/Baa1/A- | 2006 | 17 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Melowind | Renewable (Wind) | 100% | Uruguay | USD | 50MW | BBB/Baa2/BBB- | 2015 | 17 |
| | | | | | | | | |
Mini-Hydro | Renewable (Hydraulic) | 100% | Peru | USD | 4 MW | BBB+/A3/ BBB+- | 2012 | 14 |
| (1) | On September 30, 2013, Liberty Interactive Corporation agreed to invest $300 million in Class A shares of ASO Holdings Company LLC, the holding company of Solana, in exchange for a share of the dividends and the taxable losses generated by Solana. |
| (2) | Itochu Corporation, a Japanese trading company, holds 30% of the shares in each of Solaben 2 and Solaben 3. |
| (3) | JGC, a Japanese engineering company, holds 13% of the shares in each of Solacor 1 and Solacor 2. |
| (4) | Kaxu is owned by the Company (51%), Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (29%) and Kaxu Community Trust (20%). |
| (5) | Algerian Energy Company, SPA owns 49% of Skikda and Sacyr Agua, S.L. owns the remaining 16.83%. |
| (6) | Algerian Energy Company, SPA owns 49% of Honaine and Sacyr Agua, S.L. owns the remaining 25.5%. |
| (7) | Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía (“Idae”), a Spanish state owned company, holds 20% of the shares in Seville PV. |
| (8) | Certain contracts denominated in U.S. dollars are payable in local currency. |
| (9) | Reflects the counterparty’s credit ratings issued by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, or S&P, Moody’s Investors Service Inc., or Moody’s, and Fitch Ratings Ltd, or Fitch. |
| (10) | Refers to the credit rating of the Republic of South Africa. The offtaker is Eskom, which is a state-owned utility company in South Africa. |
| (11) | Refers to the credit rating of Uruguay, as UTE (Administración Nacional de Usinas y Transmisoras Eléctricas) is unrated. |
| (12) | Including the acquisition of ATN expansion 1. |
| (13) | As of December 31, 2018. |
On November 27, 2015, Abengoa, reported that, it filed a communication pursuant to article 5 bis of the Spanish Insolvency Law 22/2003 with the Mercantile Court of Seville nº 2. On November 8, 2016, the Judge of the Mercantile Court of Seville declared judicial approval of Abengoa´s restructuring agreement. On March 31, 2017 Abengoa announced the completion of the restructuring. As a result, Atlantica Yield received Abengoa debt and equity instruments in exchange of the guarantee previously provided by Abengoa regarding the preferred equity investment in Abengoa Concessoes Brasil Holding (“ACBH”).
The project financing arrangement of Kaxu contains cross-default provisions related to Abengoa such that debt defaults by Abengoa, subject to certain threshold amounts and/or a restructuring process, could trigger a default under the Kaxu project financing arrangement. In March 2017, Atlantica obtained a waiver in its Kaxu project financing arrangement which waives any potential cross-defaults with Abengoa up to that date, but it does not cover potential future cross-default events.
In addition, in Solana and Mojave, in November 2017, in the context of the agreement reached between Abengoa and Algonquin for the acquisition by Algonquin of 25% of the shares of the Company and based on the obligations of Abengoa under the EPC contract, the Company signed a consent with the DOE which reduced this minimum ownership required by Abengoa in Atlantica Yield to 16%, which became effective upon closing of the transaction on March 9, 2018, when Abengoa announced it made effective the sale of a 25% stake in Atlantica Yield to Algonquin. In addition, the DOE approved on November 27, 2018 the sale to Algonquin of the residual stake of 16.47% in the Company held by Abengoa, canceling any residual change of ownership clause of previous agreements.
These consolidated financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors of the Company on February 26, 2019.