M&A roundup and financing: solar cell maker Exeger raises $ 38 million

Exeger, the Swedish solar cell manufacturer, secured $ 38 million in funding to start building its new solar cell factory in Stockholm, Sweden. This financing round includes debt financing of $ 12 million from Swedbank, which is partly underwritten by the Swedish Export Credit Agency under the guarantee of investment credits for innovative companies. The Swedish Export Credit Corporation issued a loan in the amount of $ 8 million, which is partly subscribed by the European Investment Fund. The company also raised $ 18 million through a share issue directed to Ilija Batljan Invest, bringing the total of the financing round to $ 38 million.
California-based large-scale energy storage battery maker ESS Technology has ad its merger with ACON S2 Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). The collaboration led it to become a publicly traded company. The business combination values ââthe combined company at a pro forma enterprise value of $ 1.07 billion. According to the announcement, the transaction will provide approximately $ 465 million in pro forma net cash to the combined company, assuming no shareholder buybacks of ACON S2 take place.
Macquarie Specialized and Asset Finance (Macquarie) – part of Macquarie’s Commodities and Global Markets Group – succeeded divested Cortex Metering Solutions, a UK portfolio of industrial and commercial smart meters, to Energy Assets Group. Macquarie Capital (Europe) acted as financial advisor and Allen & Overy acted as legal advisor to Macquarie Specialized and Asset Finance in connection with the transaction. Evercore acted as sole financial advisor and Clifford Chance acted as legal advisor to Energy Assets in connection with the transaction.
Repsol, a Spanish energy and petrochemical company, agreed to purchase a 40% stake in Hecate Energy, developer, owner and operator of renewable energy projects and storage solutions in North America, to give the Spanish energy company a platform to expand into the growing US renewable energy market, three people familiar with the matter said. Hecate Energy manages more than 20 ongoing or late development solar projects in countries such as the United States, Canada and Jordan.
Dominion Energy, an electricity and energy company, Between in a definitive agreement to acquire Birdseye Renewable Energy, a large-scale solar developer. As part of Dominion Energy, Birdseye will support the development of regulated and long-term solar energy and storage projects. Onpeak Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Birdseye.
424 Capital, an investment company focused mainly on healthcare and renewable energy areas, completed the acquisition of QE Solar, a provider of operation and maintenance services for commercial, industrial and utility solar infrastructure as well as battery energy storage systems. The transaction provides additional investment capital to support the continued growth of QE Solar’s workforce nationwide and expand its capabilities in markets across the country.
SP Group, a Singapore-based utility and sustainable energy solutions provider, and Jinko Power, a solar panel manufacturer, sign a joint venture agreement (JV) to acquire and invest in renewable energy assets and develop integrated energy solutions in China. The JV will be 60% owned by SP Group and 40% by Jinko Power. The JV will acquire an initial total of 102 MW of solar assets on the rooftops of Jinko Power in the Yangtze Delta region which includes Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
Starsight Energy, a commercial and industrial solar energy (C&I) supplier, has ad its acquisition of a 50% stake in the C&I business of Premier Solar Group of East African operations. The transaction will see the creation of Starsight Premier Energy Group, which will provide sustainable energy, cooling as a service and battery storage solutions to C&I customers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
For reports and follow-ups on financing and M&A transactions in solar energy, energy storage, smart grids and efficiency, click on here.
Read last week’s funding roundup.