Mainstream Renewable Power, the Dublin-based green energy group, saw its net losses narrow by 40 per cent to €325 million as asset impairment charges against its problem Chilean wind and solar portfolio declined.
The figures were published by the company’s Oslo-listed parent group Aker Horizons on Thursday.
Mainstream’s chief financial officer, Julie Berg, declined to comment during a presentation to investors on ongoing speculation that it is planning to sell the Chilean platform, its largest asset, known as Andes Renovables.
However, she said that Mainstream is “continually reviewing” its options for the Andes portfolio. The company is currently focusing on “optimising the performance of the operating assets” and developing pipeline projects in the South American country. “We have a lot of options available to us there,” she added.
Mainstream won contracts in Chile in 2016 to develop 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar energy projects – the equivalent of about a quarter of peak Irish electricity demand. However, a series of problems affecting the Chilean electricity market has resulted in financial losses for a number of renewable-energy companies in recent times.
Aker Horizons said that Mainstream recorded the equivalent of €8.44 million of impairments and depreciation in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from a €134 million charge booked for the previous three months and a €91 million writedown taken in the year-earlier period.
[ Mainstream books further €134m charge on Chile amid talk of saleOpens in new window ]
Still, it brings total I charges taken against the Chilean assets since the start of 2022 to as much as the equivalent of about €890 million, according to calculations based off disclosures in various Aker Horizons financial reports.
Chilean online publications Redimin and La Tercera reported in October that Mainstream had hired Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual during the summer to find a buyer for its Chilean portfolio.
Aker Horizons acquired a controlling stake in Mainstream four years ago. It owns 58.4 per cent of the company, while Japan’s Mitsui Bank holds a further 25 per cent interest. Legacy Irish investors, including the estate of the Mainstream founder, the late Eddie O’Connor, own a little over 16 per cent.
Mainstream’s losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) narrowed to €20 million last year from €138 million for 2023, helped by an improving commercial performance of the operating Chilean assets.
More recently, Mainstream has been streamlining its business to focus on growth in core markets South Africa, Australia and Philippines, as well as certain offshore projects.
Mainstream and a group of three partners were awarded a feasibility licence by the Australian government for a 2.5 gigawatt (GW) offshore project off the coast of Victoria in the southeast of the country last May.
The multi-billion-euro project would be the largest since Mainstream was set up in 2008. Mainstream is joint lead of the Australian consortium, with a 35 per cent stake.
Aker Horizons acquired a 50 per cent stake in SuperNode, a company developing next generation superconducting cable systems for power that was also founded by Mr O’Connor, as part of the 2021 deal. The Norwegian company said on Thursday that full-scale testing of SuperNode’s superconducting technology is planned for this year.
Meanwhile, Aker Horizons’s share price rose as much as 5 per cent in Oslo as the group’s 43.3 per cent-owned Aker Carbon Capture, which has the technology to capture and store carbon dioxide from industrial operations, announced a large 3.5 billion Norwegian krone (€300 million) dividend for shareholders. Still, the shares remain down about 58 per cent over the past 12 months.
