The Alberta Investment Management Corp. and the AES Corp. have agreed to acquire U.S. solar developer FTP Power LLC (sPower) from Fir Tree Partners and its minority owners.
The transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, is for $853 million in cash, plus the assumption of $724 million in non-recourse debt.
As part of the transaction, AIMCo and AES will each directly and independently purchase and own slightly below 50 per cent equity interests in sPower, a company that owns and operates utility and commercial distributed electrical generation systems across the United States.
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“AIMCo is excited to acquire an approximate 50 per cent interest in sPower on behalf of our clients and
consistent with our investment mandate, and in partnership with AES,” said Kevin Uebelein, chief executive officer of AIMCo. “sPower is an impressive organization that has and continues to successfully develop and execute a robust renewable energy development pipeline, delivering value to all of its many stakeholders . . .”
FTP Power’s portfolio includes 1,274 megawatt of solar and wind projects in operation or under construction and a development pipeline of more than 10,000 megawatt located in the U.S. The operating assets and projects under
construction are under long-term power purchase agreements with an average remaining life of 21 years.
“sPower not only brings 1.3 GW of installed capacity with an average remaining contract life of more than
20 years, but a first class management and development team with a pipeline of more than 10 GW of
projects,” said Andrés Gluski, president and chief executive officer at AES.
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“With the help of Fir Tree, we have experienced incredible growth over the last three years,” said Ryan Creamer, chief executive officer of sPower. “We are excited to become part of the AES/AIMCo partnership and we are confident that it positions us to continue to grow, develop and maximize the platform that we have created.”