BELMONT, Calif., Sept. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- SunEdison, Inc.
(NYSE: SUNE), the largest global renewable energy development
company, together with institutional investors advised by J.P.
Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets, today announced a
strategic partnership to fund renewable energy projects in both
operating and construction stages. Under the partnership
commitment, J.P. Morgan's clients are expected to provide equity to
purchase renewable energy projects developed or purchased by
SunEdison. Remaining project costs are expected to be funded with
traditional, non-recourse commercial bank debt and tax equity.
This partnership, which will be majority owned by J.P. Morgan's
clients, and may be expanded with the agreement of both partners,
is initially expected to fund the purchase of a 33 percent
interest, valued at $300 million, in
a 425 megawatt (MW) AC portfolio of solar assets owned by Dominion
(NYSE: D). Both KeyBank N.A. and Santander
Bank, N.A. have committed to provide project debt financing,
subject to certain conditions.
Proceeds from the strategic partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset
Management's Infrastructure Investment Group are expected to
provide for payment of an agreed upfront development margin.
SunEdison would have the ability to repurchase these projects from
the partnership and any projects not called by SunEdison would
continue to be owned by the partnership. The partnership also
contemplates the acquisition of new development projects into
mid-2016, providing an ongoing source of capital for SunEdison
projects ready to go into construction or operation.
"This partnership supports SunEdison's growth strategy while
strengthening our liquidity," said Paul
Gaynor, executive vice president of SunEdison's EMEA and
Americas business unit. "Attracting strong investors such as J.P.
Morgan Asset Management reinforces the breadth and depth of demand
for ownership of renewable energy assets. We are pleased to
leverage this new partnership to invest in Dominion's diverse,
domestic portfolio of solar assets without using any equity from
SunEdison. This is our third transaction announced with Dominion in
the last month."
"We are pleased to have this opportunity to pursue this
partnership with the leading global renewable energy company," said
Matt LeBlanc, chief investment
officer of OECD Infrastructure at J.P. Morgan Asset Management –
Global Real Assets. "These high-quality projects represent a
significant and attractive investment in viable, long-term
infrastructure assets for our investors in alignment with our
partner, SunEdison."
SunEdison's interest in the partnership's ownership stake in the
solar portfolio will be added to the Call Right Projects List for
TerraForm Power, Inc. The partnership creates additional asset
storage capacity for SunEdison projects under construction and
operation. The partnership will support incremental flexibility and
long-term growth for both SunEdison and TerraForm Power as well as
the ability for J.P. Morgan's clients to deploy capital into
high-quality renewable energy projects.
The partnership's 33 percent stake in Dominion's solar portfolio
includes 24 projects in six states. All of the projects are
unlevered, operating or will be operating by the end of 2015, and
fully-contracted with power purchase agreements with major
utilities and off-takers. This is one of three transactions with
Dominion in the last month for SunEdison, as Dominion has invested
approximately $830 million to acquire
50 percent cash equity and 99 percent tax equity interest in
SunEdison's Four Brothers and Three Cedars solar projects in
Utah which total 685 MW DC.
Completion of the formation of the strategic partnership and the
financial close of the related project-finance debt facility is
subject to customary conditions and approvals. KeyBanc Capital
Markets served as an advisor to SunEdison on the strategic
partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real
Assets.
About SunEdison
SunEdison is the largest global
renewable energy development company and is transforming the way
energy is generated, distributed, and owned around the world. The
company develops, finances, installs, owns and operates renewable
power plants, delivering predictably priced electricity to its
residential, commercial, government and utility customers.
SunEdison is one of the world's largest renewable energy asset
managers and provides customers with asset management, operations
and maintenance, monitoring and reporting services. Corporate
headquarters are in the United
States with additional offices and technology manufacturing
around the world. SunEdison's common stock is listed on the New
York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SUNE." To learn more visit
www.sunedison.com.
About J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real
Assets
J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets has
more than $85 billion in assets under
management and more than 400 professionals in the U.S.,
Europe and Asia Pacific, as of June 30, 2015. With a 45-year history of
successful investing, J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real
Assets' broad capabilities provide many of the world's most
sophisticated investors with a global platform of real estate,
infrastructure and transportation strategies driven by local
investment talent with disciplined investment processes
consistently implemented across asset types and regions. The Global
Real Assets team is part of J.P. Morgan Asset Management's
Alternatives Investments business, which collectively manages over
$120 billion in client assets across
real assets, hedge funds, credit and private equity. For more
information: jpmorgan.com/institutional/global_real_assets
Forward Looking Statements
This communication contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Exchange Act.
Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they
do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These
statements involve estimates, expectations, projections, goals,
assumptions, known and unknown risks, and uncertainties and
typically include words or variation of words such as "expect,"
"anticipate," "believe," "intend," "plan," "seek," "estimate,"
"predict," "project," "goal," "guidance," "outlook," "objective,"
"forecast," "target," "potential," "continue," "would," "will,"
"should," "could," or "may" or other comparable terms and phrases.
All statements that address operating performance, events, or
developments that SunEdison expects or anticipates will occur in
the future are forward-looking statements. They may include
estimates of expected cash available for distribution (CAFD),
earnings, revenues, capital expenditures, liquidity, capital
structure, future growth, and other financial performance items
(including future dividends per share), descriptions of
management's plans or objectives for future operations, products,
or services, or descriptions of assumptions underlying any of the
above. Forward-looking statements provide SunEdison's current
expectations or predictions of future conditions, events or results
and speak only as of the date they are made. Although SunEdison
believes its expectations and assumptions are reasonable, it can
give no assurance that these expectations and assumptions will
prove to have been correct and actual results may vary
materially.
By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements.
Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not
limited to, a variety of economic, competitive and regulatory
factors, many of which are beyond SunEdison's control and are
described in SunEdison's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2014, as well as
additional factors it may describe from time to time in other
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should
understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such
factors and, consequently, you should not consider any such list to
be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.
SunEdison disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying
assumptions, factors, or expectations, new information, data, or
methods, future events, or other changes, except as required by
law.
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SOURCE SunEdison, Inc.