Altus Power gets funding to expand, recapitalize
GSO Capital Partners and Blackstone Insurance Solutions will provide $850 million to Altus Power America to refinance its capital structure and fund future development.
The recapitalization consists of preferred and minority equity and investment grade-rated debt financing provided by GSO and a BIS-led consortium. It also includes a construction-to-term loan facility from a syndicate of commercial banks. This will provide Altus, which provides solar power, with enough capital to grow its portfolio to over $1 billion of commercial and industrial solar assets.
“We’re incredibly enthusiastic to be partnering with Blackstone as we position our business for accelerating growth. By providing Altus with a full capital structure solution, including investment-grade rated permanent senior financing, Blackstone is empowering Altus to be one of the most competitive capital partners in distributed generation solar,” Gregg Felton, managing partner of Altus Power, said.
Altus is seeing higher demand from its private and public clients for locally sited solar arrays that are capable of producing energy savings for off-takers. The recapitalization includes one of the first privately rated investment-grade financings comprised solely of commercial and industrial distributed solar assets.
“We are excited to partner with Altus, a leading developer and operator of solar assets with a best in class management team. Our investment will enable Altus to meet growing demand for low cost, renewable energy in North America and we believe represents an attractive opportunity for our investors,” Robert Horn, senior managing director of Blackstone and Co-Head of GSO’s Energy Group, said.
Altus Power, based in Greenwich, Conn., provides solar energy to commercial, industrial, and municipal clients. Altus has developed or acquired more than 130 distributed generation solar facilities totaling over 180 megawatts.
