Duke Energy has reached a $2.8bn deal to offload its unregulated utility-scale commercial renewables business.
The sale has been made to Brookfield Renewable, one of the world’s largest owners and operators of renewable power and climate transition assets.[1]
The sum covers non-controlling tax equity interests and debt assumption. Duke Energy Renewables is a US-based developer and operator of renewable power assets.
The firm has 5.9GW of operating and under-construction utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage and 6.1GW of the development pipeline.
The primary operations of the acquired business will remain in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Brookfield employees will join.
Duke Energy’s expected net proceeds from this transaction are $1.1 billion, this will be used to strengthen its balance sheet and avoid additional holding company debt issuances.
This will allow the company to focus on the growth of its regulated businesses, including investments to enhance grid reliability and incorporate over 30,000 megawatts of regulated renewable energy by 2035.
Duke Energy chair, president, and CEO Lynn Good stated: “As one of the country’s largest renewable energy operators, Brookfield has the resources to support the continued growth and success of the commercial renewables’ portfolio.
“This sale is an important step in our transition into a purely regulated company with significant grid and clean energy investment plans that will deliver benefits to our customers and stakeholders.”
The deal awaits regulatory clearance and is scheduled to complete by the end of 2023. Brookfield expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to funds from operations.
It also announced a bought deal and concurrent private placement, expected to fetch $650m in aggregate equity proceeds.
Brookfield CEO Connor Teskey stated: “With this acquisition, we are adding a scale operating renewable platform located in highly attractive markets that we expect will immediately contribute meaningful cash flows with significant upside from potential asset repowering and synergies.
“We are also adding to our pipeline of renewable development projects, solidifying our position as one of the largest renewable energy businesses in the US with almost 90,000MW of operating and development assets.”
References
- Power Technology, ‘Brookfield to buy Duke Energy’s renewables unit for $2.8bn’, 13 June 2023, https://www.power-technology.com/news/brookfield-buy-duke-energy-renewables/[↩]
