US-based solar power tower developer BrightSource Energy has picked three rival investment banks for its planned $250m flotation rather than their peer Morgan Stanley, which owns 10.5% of its portfolio company.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are serving as co-lead underwriters, according to the company’s regulatory filing.
The flotation will help fund BrightSource’s development, after the company posted a $71.6m net loss last year on $13.5m in revenue. The company has also gained a US government loan guarantee of $1.37bn last year, which was subsequently increased to $1.6bn.
This US Department of Energy loan was for BrightSource’s Ivanpah project, which has a total project cost of $2.18bn, according to news provider Greentech Media. Utility NRG Energy has committed up to $300m in equity and search engine Google committed $168m to the Ivanpah project, with the balance from BrightSource and construction group Bechtel.
BrightSource has signed 14 power purchase agreements (PPAs) to deliver approximately 2.6 gigawatts of installed capacity to two of the largest electric utilities in the US, PG&E and Southern California Edison and estimates it has a $4bn of revenue opportunity through sales of its systems, Greentech Media said.
French power equipment maker Alstom become BrightSource’s second-largest shareholder, with 17.8%, after investing $130m in the company’s D and E rounds over the past year.
Venture capital firms VantagePoint Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson own 24.9% and 6.7% respectively.
The other members of the E round consortium with less than 5% shareholders include oil majors BP and Chevron’s corporate venturing units and California state pension fund Calstrs.
BrightSource’s stock options granted in 2010 and 2011 with the last two rounds have exercise prices at between $4.26 and $6.79 per share.