Mainstream losses narrow to €46m in first quarter

Losses at Irish green energy group Mainstream Renewable Power slipped to €46 million in the first three months of the year, new figures show.

Mainstream’s biggest shareholder, Norway’s Aker Horizons, reported on Wednesday that the Irish company continued to grapple with problems in Chile, where it took heavy losses last year.

According to Aker’s latest quarterly report, Mainstream’s losses narrowed to €46 million in the first three months of 2023 from €53 million during the same period last year.

A €28 million boost from the sale of Mainstream’s stake in African wind farms to Infinity Group and Africa Finance Corporation aided the Irish company’s performance during the quarter, said Aker.

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Mainstream will earn more than €80 million in total from that deal, which it and partner Actis struck in July last year.

Revenues grew to €44 million in the first quarter of this year from €31 million in the initial three months of 2022.

Aker said that Mainstream and the rest of the renewables industry is pressing the Chilean government and regulator for reforms of the South American country’s market, which the Norwegian player argued is not “fit for purpose”.

The Irish business lost €370 million there last year. Aker blamed challenging conditions that forced other companies to tell Chile’s national electricity operator they could no longer fulfil the terms of their power purchase deals.

A review of its business recently prompted Mainstream to pull out of a Japanese floating offshore wind project in which it invested early last year.

Elsewhere, Aker said that Mainstream had signed a power purchase deal with an industrial customer for 100 mega watts of electricity from one of its planned South African wind farms.

Mainstream’s total assets stood at €2.84 billion, unchanged from the first quarter of 2022. Cash rose to €411 million in the first three months of 2023 from €314 million during the same quarter last year.

Net debt fell to €867 million from €983 million over the same period, but rose €60 million from the closing quarter of 2022.

Run by chief executive, Mary Quaney, Mainstream has businesses in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia.

Its other shareholders are Japan’s Mitsui Bank with 25 per cent and a group of investors that includes founder Eddie O’Connor, which has around 16 per cent. Aker owns 58.4 per cent of the Irish company.