London Stock Exchange-listed energy storage investor Gresham House Energy Storage Fund has secured a £380 million (US$507 million) funding package from major UK retail bank NatWest.
Enabling Gresham House to significantly grow its pipeline of projects, the funding includes plans for seven newly announced utility-scale operational battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, which are expected to be completed in 2022.
NatWest’s funding package will run over a five year period, and is made up of a £150 million capex term loan, a £30 million working capital facility and £200 million uncommitted accordion. The fund, listed on the stock exchange under the ticker ‘GRID,’ will use part of these funds to repay a maturing bond.
“Introducing a modest amount of cost-effective leverage to the portfolio has been an ambition since IPO and we’re delighted with the successful completion of this transaction, the terms achieved and the quality of the institutions that have taken part,” Ben Guest, GRID fund manager and head of the Gresham House New Energy division said.
“We recently set out ambitious plans to significantly increase the size of our portfolio over the next two years, given the UK’s need to increase battery storage capacity tenfold by the middle of this decade. This facility will provide us with the financial headroom to achieve our growth plans.”
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