Majority owners selling shareholding in Jamaican solar energy company 

Durrant Pate/ Contributor

Paradise Park, Jamaica’s largest photovoltaic power plant and the cheapest energy producer on the island is being sold to a third-party company, as the two majority owners are offloading their interest in the 51-megawatt solar power plant in Westmoreland.

MPC Caribbean Clean Energy Limited (MPCCEL)—the second largest shareholder in Paradise Park, which trades as Eight Rivers Energy Company—has announced its intention to sell its indirect shareholding in Paradise Park. MPCCEL, a Caribbean-based investment company established in 2017 and trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, last Thursday, October 31 entered into the Sale Purchase Agreement to sell its indirect shareholding.

The move resulted from the majority shareholder, French company, Neoen, issuing a notice of intention to proceed with a third-party sale process in respect of its shareholding in the power plant. After receiving the final binding offer along with the notice related to tag-along right, the Board of Directors of MPCCEL approved to exercise its tag-along rights to participate in the sale.

Sale to be completed by Q1 of 2025

The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year. In June 2018, MPCCEL acquired shareholding (indirect) in Paradise Park, which was commissioned in June 2019 and was the first acquisition of the company.

The company envisioned enabling private and institutional investors from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to invest in its renewable energy projects in those countries and the wider Caribbean region.

MPCCEL is registered in Barbados and publicly listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange as well as the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange. Paradise Park solar plant operates under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Jamaican Public Service Company.