Spruce Finance lands another $50 million equity investment

Spruce Finance‘s comeback trail continues. The owner and operator of distributed generation assets in the U.S., has received a $50 million equity investment from its owner HPS Investment Partners. This follow-on investment demonstrates HPS’ commitment to Spruce and the solar asset class, providing support for continued growth through acquisition of solar assets.

The investment comes as Spruce, the second-largest privately held residential solar company in the U.S., is actively pursuing opportunities to add operational solar assets to its 150 MW portfolio. Spruce is looking beyond residential portfolios and is also evaluating community and commercial solar assets.

The equity funding follows Spruce’s recent closing of a $208 million senior secured debt financing of its residential solar assets. Its independent subsidiary, Energy Service Experts, provides asset management services to more than $1 billion of residential solar assets, including both Spruce’s own assets and third-party portfolios. In November of last year, Spruce announced that it was acquired by HPS Investment Partners.

Key hire

Tim Distler recently joined Spruce as vice president of corporate development to lead the company’s project finance and M&A activity. Distler has extensive experience in solar financing, having led a solar development and finance platform for LG Electronics. Prior to LG, he was head of project finance at RET Capital and also held roles at Recurrent Energy, PG&E and E.ON Climate & Renewables.

“The continued support of HPS, paired with Tim’s M&A expertise, ensures that we have both the capital and the capabilities needed to acquire attractive portfolios.” said Christian Fong, president and CEO of Spruce Finance, “The growth of our team’s expertise and our financial resources set us up for a strong growth trajectory.”

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: https://solarbuildermag.com/news/spruce-finance-lands-another-50-million-equity-investment/]