First Reserve Forms Solar-Energy Venture With MEMC’s SunEdison
May 25 (Bloomberg) — First Reserve Corp., the energy- focused private-equity firm, formed a joint venture with SunEdison to invest in solar-power projects.
SunEdison, a division of St. Peters, Missouri-based MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., and First Reserve initially will contribute $167 million each to the venture, the companies said today in a statement. The partnership may eventually buy as much as $1.5 billion of projects developed by SunEdison.
Private-equity firms are eyeing infrastructure deals, often in partnership with companies, to capitalize on increasing energy demand around the world. SunEdison has more than 350 solar electric power plants under management.
“There’s a huge global policy drive for more renewables,” Mark Florian, a managing director of Greenwich, Connecticut- based First Reserve, said today in an interview. “This about doing projects on a large commercial scale.”
Using the initial equity, the companies will buy assets valued at $825 million. First Reserve may raise $150 million more and use additional financing to bring the total owned by the joint venture to $1.5 billion, according to the statement.
Florian said about 40 percent of First Reserve’s buyout deals have been done with corporate partners. The firm, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, has about $20 billion in assets under management.
-Jason Kelly
