Duke Energy has sold its $364m (€334.4m) commercial distributed generation business to ArcLight Capital Partners as part of the US energy holding company’s plan to streamline its portfolio and strengthen its balance sheet.
NYSE-listed Duke Energy said it expects $259m of proceeds from the sale, which is expected to close by the end of 2023.
The distributed generation which includes REC Solar operating assets, development pipeline and operation & maintenance portfolio, as well as distributed fuel cell projects managed by Bloom Energy, has an enterprise value of $364m, inclusive of non-controlling tax equity interests.
Last month, Duke Energy agreed to sell its utility-scale renewables business platform to Brookfield Renewable at an enterprise value of around $2.8bn, including non-controlling tax equity interests and the assumption of debt.
Duke Energy said it expects to use the proceeds from the sale of the businesses to strengthen its balance sheet and avoid additional holding company debt issuances associated with these assets.
Lynn Good, Duke Energy chair, president and CEO, said: “The sale of our commercial renewables businesses streamlines our portfolio and provides the resources to support the long-term needs of our customers in our growing regulated territories.”
Good added that over the next decade, Duke Energy intends to invest to fund the “critical energy infrastructure necessary to serve our customers and support our clean-energy transition”.
Marco Gatti, managing director at ArcLight, said: “Our investment in Duke Energy’s commercial distributed generation business supports ArcLight’s long-standing strategy of acquiring operating assets from leading strategics and creating strong stand-alone renewable platforms.”
Dan Revers, a managing partner of ArcLight, added: “This transaction leverages ArcLight’s deep experience in investing across the renewables infrastructure sector and utilising our value-added approach to help drive asset optimisation, which allows us to further build upon the portfolio and advance brownfield development opportunities.”
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