Solar corp funding grows to USD 2.4bn in Q3 - Mercom

Solar corporate funding in the third quarter (Q3) of 2017 has jumped to USD 2.4 billion (EUR 2.04bn) in 45 deals from USD 1.4 billion in 37 deals in the previous quarter, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group.

“Debt financing activity outside of the United States helped bump up corporate funding in the third quarter as financing activity in the United States was muted ahead of the Suniva anti-dumping case decision,” said Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu. Still, total corporate funding in the solar sector, including venture capital/private equity (VC/PE), debt and public market financing, was 19% lower as compared to the USD 3 billion raised in the year-ago period.

Most of the VC funding in Q3, or USD 193 million, was raised by solar downstream companies in 13 deals. The top VC deal was a USD-100-million capital injection secured by Indian rooftop solar developer CleanMax Solar from New York-based buyout firm Warburg Pincus.

Mercom also said there were 26 large-scale solar project acquisitions in July-September, totalling more than 2 GW, which were carried out mostly by investment firms and funds. The quarter saw 18 solar merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, unchanged from a year ago, 13 of which involved downstream solar companies.

The solar sector raised a total of USD 7.1 billion in corporate funding in the first nine months of 2017, coming from 143 deals, against USD 7.5 billion in the year-ago period when the number of deals was 125. In terms of M&A activity, 58 transactions were registered the first nine months, up from 48 a year before. There were also 161 large-scale project acquisitions for a combined capacity of 14.6 GW, while deals in the first nine months of 2016 were for 7.1 GW of capacity.

Mercom tracked 296 large-scale project announcements globally in Q3 totaling 15.7 GW of capacity.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.850)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!