US-based clean energy provider SolarCity has raised $305m in latest cash equity financing.
The money was raised from a private investment fund affiliated with Quantum Strategic Partners and advised by Soros Fund Management. It will be used in a portfolio of residential, commercial and industrial solar projects.
The financing also includes an 18-year loan arranged via a syndicate of five institutional investors.
SolarCity says that by placing the equity investor and lender group separately, it was able to achieve pre-tax, weighted average cost of capital of 7.4% for the transaction.
It says that this is a significant improvement compared to its earlier cash equity transaction. SolarCity claims that the transaction and terms show the quality of its distributed solar assets.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch was the sole syndication and structuring agent for the transaction.
This syndicated, long-dated, fully-amortising loan is claimed to be a ‘first of its kind’ for distributed solar assets, which create a financing tool for SolarCity.
SolarCity will monitise its underlying cash flows in cash equity transactions, but will remain as the owner of assets and will continue to service its customers. The company had $5.2bn in solar energy system assets in recent balance sheet on June 30.
These assets will be contracted to $3.1bn in future payments on the basis of net present value (NPV). The company expects to continue executing additional transactions in future with high quality investors to monitise on contracted cash flows.
The transaction includes a portfolio of assets that produce about 230MW of energy spread across 15 states, with majority installations constructed in 2015 and 2016.