There has been a raft of positive newsflow in the past few weeks from Gresham House (GHE:560p), a fund manager that specialises in renewable energy generation, solar power, wind, forestry, infrastructure funds and public and private equity investment strategies.
Firstly, Gresham House Energy Storage Fund (GRID:104.5p), a specialist investment company that invests in UK energy storage systems (ESS), has raised £41.6m in a placing, at 103p a share, and has now successfully raised the £200m outlined in November’s IPO. The company currently has 75 megawatts (MW) of capacity in six utility-scale operational ESSs, and subject to successful commissioning, purchase of assets in the pipeline and upgrades to existing projects, total capacity is set to rise to 229MW by the end of the first quarter of 2020, hence the rationale for the equity raise.
In addition, Gresham House Asset Management, the fund management arm of Gresham House that manages Gresham House Energy Storage Fund’s projects, is conducting due diligence on a pipeline of projects comprising: four operational ESS with a total of 95MW connection capacity; and project rights for a further six ESS with a total of 240MW of connection capacity. The pipeline has an investment value, on an operational basis, in excess of £200m, highlighting how freshly raised capital can be rapidly deployed into income-producing assets.