REG - US Solar Fund PLC US Solar Fund - USFP - MS2 SALE - FINANCIAL CLOSE

Us Solar FundAnnouncement

26/06/2023 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20230626:nRSZ8096Da&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 8096D  US Solar Fund PLC  26 June 2023

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE
OR IN PART, TO US PERSONS OR INTO OR WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA,
CANADA OR JAPAN, OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE, OR TO ANY OTHER PERSON TO
WHOM, TO DO SO WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN DOES NOT
CONSTITUTE OR FORM PART OF ANY OFFER TO SELL OR ISSUE, OR ANY SOLICITATION OF
ANY OFFER TO PURCHASE, SUBSCRIBE FOR OR OTHERWISE ACQUIRE, ANY INVESTMENTS IN
ANY JURISDICTION.

 

26 June 2023

US SOLAR FUND PLC (USF, the "Company")

MS2 SALE - FINANCIAL CLOSE

US Solar Fund plc (LON: USF (USD)/USFP (GBP)) is pleased to announce that it
has reached financial close on the sale of USF's 50% interest in the 200MW(DC)
Mount Signal 2 (MS2) asset to a subsidiary of MN8 Energy LLC, a renewable
energy business formerly known as Goldman Sachs Renewable Power LLC (MN8).
This follows the January 2023 exercise of the purchase option granted to MN8
in 2022 (Option) and the signing of a binding sale agreement in April 2023.

MN8 has acquired USF's 50% interest in MS2 for US$52.2 million excluding
working capital plus the non-refundable Option fee of $1 million paid in 2022.
The sale implies a gross return of approximately 10% per annum 1  since USF
announced the agreement to acquire up to 50% of MS2 from New Energy Solar in
December 2020.

No adviser success fees were payable for the sale. Approximately $4.5m of the
proceeds has been used to repay the full drawn balance of the Company's
revolving credit facility. In conjunction with the ongoing strategic review
the Board is considering the use of the remaining proceeds and expects to
advise shareholders of the use of those remaining proceeds within the next two
weeks.

 

For further information, please contact:

 US Solar Fund                    +1 718 230 4329

 Whitney Voute

 Cenkos Securities plc            +44 20 7397 8900

 James King

 Tunga Chigovanyika

 Will Talkington

 Jefferies International Limited  +44 20 7029 8000

 Stuart Klein

 Gaudi Le Roux

 KL Communications                +44 20 3995 6673
 Charles Gorman

 Charlotte Francis

 Millie Steyn

 

 

About US Solar Fund plc

US Solar Fund plc, established in 2019, listed on the premium segment of the
London Stock Exchange in April 2019. The Company's investment objective is to
provide investors with attractive and sustainable dividends with an element of
capital growth by owning and operating solar power assets in North America and
other OECD countries in the America.

The solar power assets that the Company acquires or constructs are expected to
have an asset life of at least 30 years and generate stable and uncorrelated
cashflows by selling electricity to creditworthy offtakers under long-term
power purchase agreements (or PPAs). Following the sale of the 50% interest in
MS2, the Company's portfolio currently consists of 41 operational solar
projects with a total capacity of 443MW(DC), all located in the United States.

 

Further information on the Company can be found on its website
at http://www.ussolarfund.co.uk (http://www.ussolarfund.co.uk/) .

 

About the Investment Manager

USF is managed by New Energy Solar Manager (NESM). NESM also manages New
Energy Solar, an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed fund. Combined,
US Solar Fund and New Energy Solar have committed approximately US$1.3 billion
to 57 projects totalling 1.2GWDC.

 

NESM is owned by E&P Funds, the funds management division of E&P
Financial Group, an ASX listed company (ASX: EP1) with over A$20 billion of
funds under advice.

 

 

 1  Before taxes and transaction costs.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  DISFIFEARDIEFIV