LONDON: Gore Street, London’s first listed energy storage fund supporting the transition to low carbon power, is proposing to issue up to 60 million new Ordinary Shares by way of an Initial Placing, Offer for Subscription and Intermediaries Offer.
Following the Initial Issue, the Directors intend to implement a programme of subsequent issues of up to 250 million Ordinary Shares (less the number of Ordinary Shares issued pursuant to the Initial Issue) to raise capital for further investment.
The Company will issue new ordinary shares pursuant to the Initial Issue at an issue price of 100.0 pence per Ordinary Share.
· The Issue Price represents a discount of approximately 7.8 % to the closing middle market share price of 108.5 pence per share on 27 November 2020 and a premium of approximately 3.6 % to the last reported NAV of 96.2 pence as at 30 June 2020.
· The Company targets an annual dividend of 7.0% of NAV per Ordinary Share in each financial year, subject to a minimum target of 7.0 pence per Ordinary Share. Dividends are paid quarterly and represent a current annual dividend yield of 7.0 % at the Issue Price.
· Investors in the Initial Issue will be entitled to receive the next quarterly dividend for the period to 30 September 2020, which is expected to be declared around mid-December 2020.
· The net proceeds of the Initial Issue and any Subsequent Issue will be used to acquire new projects in the Company’s pipeline or to fund capital expenditure requirements of investments in the Group’s existing portfolio. The Investment Manager has identified a pipeline of investments with a total project size of approximately 1.3GW.
Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited and J.P. Morgan Securities plc (which conducts its UK investment banking business as J.P. Morgan Cazenove) have been appointed as joint bookrunners in respect of the Initial Placing.
The Initial Issue and any Subsequent Issue will be conducted in accordance with the terms and conditions to be set out in the Prospectus, which is expected to be published shortly by the Company following its approval by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Any capitalised terms used but not otherwise defined in this announcement have the meaning set out in the Prospectus.
Both the Initial Issue and any Subsequent Issue are conditional on, amongst other things, the approval of the Company’s shareholders at a general meeting to be held on 7 December 2020, the details of which were set out in the circular published by the Company on 18 November 2020.
Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital Limited, the Company’s investment manager, commented: “We are delighted to announce today’s placing and offer for subscription to take advantage of opportunities in the compelling near term pipeline of approximately 1.3GW that is currently available to the Company. Gore Street has delivered a source of high income uncorrelated to power prices and generated from a critical infrastructure service with a rapidly growing unmet market need.
With our strong focus on the cost of acquisition and the active management of our portfolio, we have grown the fund to one of the largest energy storage portfolios available to the financial investor at 320MW. That has been achieved whilst maintaining a strong discipline in balance sheet efficiency, with a consistent meeting of our dividend target. We continue to leverage this expertise whilst executing against our significant pipeline for the benefit of new and existing Shareholders.”