Deals

Vivint Solar raises $313m five months after failed merger

The rooftop solar provider targeted by SunEdison’s botched takeover deal in March also took out a $200m loan earlier this year.

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A consortium of lenders including Investec Bank and NY Green Bank has provided US solar provider Vivint solar with a $313 million, five-year term loan facility.

Vivint, majority owned by Blackstone, is using the loan to refinance 11 tax equity funds that were part of the company's aggregation facility and provide back-leverage for tax equity funds that own a 307MW residential solar portfolio. The company also said the facility will free up borrowing capacity, raise incremental debt against renewable energy credits and lock in attractive borrowing rates.

Vivint, whose stock has plummeted since agreeing to a failed merger with SunEdison last year, said the loan is an alternative to raising funds through a bond issuance.

London-based asset manager Investec led a lending consortium that also includes ING Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. NY Green Bank, New York State's clean energy investment bank, contributed $37.5 million.

The residential solar provider agreed to a $200 million debt agreement in March, one week after SunEdison's $1.9 billion buyout offer fell apart. Thomas Plagemann, Vivint's head of capital markets, made it seem like that loan was for a quick cash infusion to steady the company after months of negotiations with SunEdison, a company that was headed towards bankruptcy. 

“Now that we are free from the constraints of the terminated SunEdison merger agreement, we have demonstrated our ability to rapidly access the capital markets for flexible, term-debt financing to support our growth”, Plagemann said in March.

Vivint is still trying to regain its footing since the botched deal. The company has seen its stock drop from around $15 per share when the operation was announced in July to $2.97 per share at the end of trading last Friday.

Despite a rough year, Vivint remains one of the largest solar providers in the US, being one of the companies that have capitalised on the solar-leasing model that allows customers to pay little to no money upfront for rooftop installations. It currently operates in 12 states including Arizon, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah.