Brookfield’s Yieldco Buying Spree

by Tom Konrad Ph.D., CFA Last week, a Bloomberg reported on a rumor that Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) was in talks to buy Abengoa's (ABGOY) stake in its former YieldCo Atlantica Yield (ABY).  Atlantica had been looking for a new sponsor for well over a year since parent Abengoa filed for bankruptcy. Purchasing Yieldcos (companies that own clean energy infrastructure and use the cash flows to pay large dividends to shareholders) is not new to Brookfield.  Not only has BAM long sponsored Brookfield Renewable Partners, LP (BEP), a limited partnership that has essentially been a Yieldco since before the term was...

5 Clean Energy Yieldcos Flying Under The Radar

by Tom Konrad CFA The launch last year of NRG Energy's YieldCo, NRG Yield (NYSE:NYLD), and the subsequent near-doubling of its price, set off a feeding frenzy on Wall Street.  YieldCos are companies which own clean energy assets and use the reliable cash flows from those assets to pay dividends to investors. Investors like YieldCos because many offer yields well above that available from most other stocks, including the fossil fuel-based master limited partnerships, upon which many YieldCos are modeled. Developers of clean energy projects find YieldCos attractive because the stock market provides capital for clean energy...

Mockumentary: This is Western Wind

Tom Konrad CFA The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy If the sale of Western Wind Energy Corp (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) were a movie it would be a satire like This Is Spinal Tap, the 1984 Rob Reiner classic Mockumentary profiling a “Heavy Metal band on the verge of spontaneous combustion.” I doubt any wind turbines are about to spontaneously burst into flame, but the news keeps getting weirder. First, there was the hedge fund (Savitr) which began pressuring management to put the company up for sale after...

Where’s Western Wind Energy’s Tax Grant?

Tom Konrad CFA  On March 22, Western Wind Energy (TSX-V:WND, OTC:WNDEF) applied for a $90,556,707 tax-free 1603 grant from the US Treasury on behalf of the completed 120MW Windstar project.  The press release stated that the grant is subject to approval by the Treasury and payable within sixty days. The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy It’s now more than three months later, and no tax grant.  The stock is down 24% since May 22, when the grant was expected, but management remains confident they will get...

Investors Expect Rapid Growth At Pattern Energy Group

Tom Konrad CFA Pattern Energy's Gulf Wind Farm in Armstrong, Texas Disclosure: Long BEP. Pattern Energy Group (NASD:PEGI, TSX:PEG) completed a very successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges on September 27th.  Not only did the shares price at $22, near the top of the expected range, but the underwriters exercised their full over allotment option to purchase 2.4 million shares in addition to the initial 16 million offered.  Total proceeds from the offering were $404.8 million.  Most of the proceeds went to Pattern Energy Group, LP (PEGLP) in consideration for a...

Sol-Wind: New Yieldco With A Tax Twist

By Tim Conneally The pool of public solar yieldcos keeps growing. Just before the Christmas holiday, Sol-Wind Renewable Power LP filed for a $100 million initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will be the eighth Yieldco to debut since 2013, and the stock will trade on the NYSE under the symbol SLWD. But there's something different about this one. Sol-Wind is a yieldco that utilizes a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) structure, so it will be taxed differently from the other Yieldcos. Generally speaking, a Yieldco is similar to MLPs by nature, but the taxation...

Power REIT: Why David Should Defeat Goliath

by Al Speisman, Esq. Al Speisman, Esq. Power REIT1 (NYSE MKT:PW) is a micro-cap Real Estate Investment Trust with assets generating consistent, secure cash flow.  Power REIT’s assets consist of long-term railroad infrastructure as well as 600 acres of land leased to solar farms. Power REIT’S current underlying value of $11.07 per share is delineated in a shareholder presentation on Power REIT’S Web-Site. This valuation does not factor in potential success in Power REIT’s pending Federal Appeal. A recent article appearing in Value Investors...

Abengoa Seeks Insolvency Protection

Jim Lane In New York, NASDAQ shares in Abengoa SA (ABGB) plunged 49% in Wednesday trading after the embattled renewable energy developer said it would seek bankruptcy protection as it seeks to reorganize nearly $9.4 billion in debt. The protective filing was announced after an expected infusion of nearly $300 million from Spanish steelmaker Gonvarri did not materialize. The company’s debt had been previously downgraded to a B3 rating by Moody’s, six rungs on the ladder beneath investment grade. Last week, Moody’s described the company’s cash reserves as “insufficient” and expressed that asset sales and a round of...

Power REIT: Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

Tom Konrad CFA It Could Have Been The First Yieldco Light at the End of the Tunnel photo via BigStock I first became interested in Power REIT (NYSE MKT:PW) in 2012 because of the company's plans to become what would have been the first US-listed "yieldco," i.e. a clean energy power producer paying a high level of reliable dividends to investors.  The company was an infrastructure Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with a single asset: its subsidiary, Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway (P&WV) which owned 122 miles of track leased to Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC), which had in turn subleased the track...

List of Wind Farm Owner and Developer Stocks

Wind farm owner and developer stocks are publicly traded companies that site, permit, develop, construct, own, or operate wind farms for producing electricity. This list was last updated on 3/22/2022 Acciona, S.A. (ANA.MC, ACXIF) Adani Green Energy (ADANIGREEN.NSE) Algonquin Power and Utilities (AQN, AQN.TO) Atlantica Yield PLC (AY) Atlantic Power Corporation (AT) Avangrid, Inc. (AGR) Boralex (BLX.TO, BRLXF) Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (BEP) China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited (0916.HK, CLPXF) China Ruifeng Renewable Energy Holdings Limited (0527.HK) Orsted (ORSTED.CO, formerly DENERG.CO) E.ON AG (EONGY) Enel SpA (ENEL.MI, ESOCF) Greencoat UK Wind (UKW.L) Infigen Energy Limited (IFN.AX, IFGNF) Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. (INE.TO, INGXF) Neoen S.A (NEOEN.PA) NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NEP) NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) Nordex AG (NRDXF, NDX1.DE) Northland Power Inc....

Atlantic Power: Not So Clean

Atlantic Power (AT) presents itself as a "clean" electricity generator. People who don't consider natural gas "clean" will disagree.

It’s Easy Being Green. Fossil Fuel Free Is Harder

Tom Konrad CFA Disclosure: Long BEP, MCQPF. PENGF, AQUNF Last week, I was surprised to discover that Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (NYSE:BEP, TSX:BEP-UN) is not entirely renewable. I’ve owned shares of Brookfield for many years, but as a relatively safe income stock, I’ve parked it in the back of my portfolio to gather dust and dividends. I apply my limited time for in-depth analysis to riskier stocks where a quarter’s earnings are likely to make a much bigger difference in the stock price. I may have noticed the “Other” category in addition to BEP’s wind and hydroelectric generation...

Covanta: Waste Yield

by Debra Fiakas CFA Last week Covanta, Holding Corp. (CVA:  NYSE) announced the pricing of a note offering.  The waste disposal and waste-to-energy company raised $400 million in the deal.  The new capital will make it possible for Covanta to repay some older debt when enough to spare for future expansion capital.  Covanta’s business model of using the municipal waste it collects for electricity generation is capital intensive.  What is more management has shown a penchant for acquisitions.  Just two months ago Covanta acquired two waste transfer stations from a competitor. Covanta appears to be making...

Capstone Infrastructure: Green Income At A Cardinal Discount

Tom Konrad CFA Capstone Infrastructure Corp.'s Gas Cogeneration facility in Cardinal, Ontario. Capstone Infrastructure Corporation (TSX:CSE, OTC:MCQPF. Disclosure: I own this stock) is an international operator and developer of green infrastructure assets and utilities which is currently selling at a significant discount to most comparable firms.  I recently ran a comparison of six similar Canada-listed firms, and Capstone seemed much cheaper on several measures. The Discount The following chart compares five renewable energy and green infrastructure firms with most of their operations in Canada: Capstone, Algonquin Power and Utilities (TSX:AQN, OTC:AQUNF), Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (NYSE:BEP),...

Western Wind Energy: A Matter of Trust, and Value

Tom Konrad CFA The Windstar Wind Farm. Photo credit: Western Wind Energy Yesterday, I wrote about Western Wind Energy’s (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) plans to increase the 1603 cash grant for their Windstar wind farm.  But that was not the only thing discussed in Monday’s conference call. Investor Frustration During the Q&A, many investors were concerned about Western Wind’s recent deal to acquire a 4 GW wind development pipeline from Champlin/GEI Wind Holdings.   The concern was that the company would be issuing 8 million shares for the assets, but the company...

Brookfield Renewable Energy Likely To Vote Against Western Wind Management in Proxy Battle

Tom Konrad CFA When it emerged that Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (“Brookfield”, TSX:BRP.UN, OTC: BRPFF) had acquired approximately one sixth of Western Wind Energy’s (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) stock last Thursday from Western Wind’s largest institutional shareholder, Goodman & Company, investors cheered. The transaction was seen as a signal that Brookfield intends to bid at least C$2.25 for Western Wind in its upcoming sale, and so the company’s stock has been trading for slightly more than C$2.25 since the announcement. Despite this, the Brookfield/Goodman transaction may not prove to be a good deal for Western Wind’s other shareholders.  Goodman had not...
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