Global corporate funding in the solar sector rose by 8% year-on-year in the third quarter to USD 3.2 billion (EUR 2.73bn), according to data by Mercom Capital Group.
The total, including venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), public market and debt financing, marks a 43% quarter-on-quarter improvement, giving “a clear sign the market is bouncing back after a prolonged shutdown,” said Mercom’s CEO Raj Prabhu. He pointed to the growth in project acquisition activity as an indicator of the financial health in the solar sector.
“Solar stocks are on an incredible run so far this year. Of the 24 solar stocks Mercom tracks globally, 12 were up over 100% at the end of Q3 – an unprecedented number,” Prabhu added.
The table contains details on the quarterly funding activity based on Mercom’s Q3/9-mo 2020 Solar Funding and M&A Report. It incorporates data from 309 companies and investors.
| Amounts in USD |
Q3 2020 |
Number of deals |
Q2 2020 |
Number of deals |
9mo 2020 |
9mo 2019 |
| Total venture capital funding |
183m |
15 |
65m |
5 |
394m |
1bn |
| Solar public market financing |
1.3bn |
4 |
737m |
5 |
2.1bn |
2.3bn |
| Debt financing |
1.8bn |
16 |
1.5bn |
9 |
5.4bn |
5.8bn |
| TOTAL corporate funding |
3.2bn |
-- |
2.3bn |
-- |
7.9bn |
9bn |
The top venture capital transactions in the nine-month period involved Sunseap Group Zero Mass Water and Lumos. A total of 55 VC investors took part in solar funding deals during the reporting period.
9-mo M&A activity
The reported M&A deals in January-September were 42, as compared to 57 transactions in the year-ago period. The value of only 11 was disclosed, standing at USD 7 billion. A total of 17 deals were registered in the third quarter alone, 13 of which involved solar downstream companies.
The top M&A deal was the acquisition of US residential solar installer Vivint Solar by rival Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN) in an all-stock deal with an enterprise value of USD 3.2 billion.
Project acquisition activity jumped by 52% on the year in spite of the COVID-shaken environment, with 24.3 GW of projects getting new owners in January-September. The most active purchasers were investors and investment firms and project developers.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.852)
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Image by: Mercom Capital Group.
