Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Oops, Missed One: Tesla Had Another $241 Million Cash Infusion We Didn't Mention (TSLA)

Following up on ""Panasonic to invest over $256 million in Tesla's U.S. plant for solar cells" (TSLA)", this would increase the cash immediately available to Tesla to around a billion. Still short of our estimate of their need but getting closer.

I'm assuming this had something to do with Renewable Energy Certificates but didn't see an SEC filing from Tesla/SolarCity that would provide more details. We'd also want to know the capitalization rates applied to the underlying residential leases to know if this was a fire sale or not but again, nada.

From Business Wire, Dec. 22:
Sammons Renewable Energy (SRE), a Sammons Enterprises, Inc. company, announced today that it led the equity portion of a $241 million cash equity transaction with SolarCity (SCTY). Franklin Park Investments manages SRE. As part of the deal, SRE is investing in a portfolio of solar projects in 16 states, including 26,000 home residential systems and 19 commercial and industrial solar projects. The financing is non-recourse to SolarCity.

“Solar City represents the caliber of company Sammons Renewable Energy looks to partner with,” said Heather Kreager, Chief Executive Officer of Sammons Enterprises, the parent company of Sammons Renewable Energy. “As Sammons Renewable Energy continues to grow in the renewable energy market, we will pursue partners that have the potential demonstrated by SolarCity in its ten-year history.”

“We are pleased to close this transaction with SolarCity and look forward to additional investments in the North American renewable energy market,” commented Tom Tribone, the Chief Executive Officer of Franklin Park, SRE’s management partner. “Our objective is to partner with strong development companies and to acquire solar, wind and hydroelectric projects either at commencement of construction or project completion.”

Alfa Business Advisers provided tax equity advice to Franklin Park and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe provided legal advice to Franklin Park....