Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has announced that it has raised gross proceeds of £135 million from a placing of new ordinary shares, which is game changing as it almost doubles the size of GSF’s market cap. The proceeds are to be deployed towards GSF’s 1.3GW development pipeline, the near-term potential acquisition of a 80MW project (expected in the coming weeks) and to accelerate the development of the Company’s existing portfolio, including the Republic of Ireland assets’ expansion from 30MW to 90MW. The placing was conducted under GSF’s placing programme. A total of 132,352,941 new ordinary shares are being issued at 102p per share.
Comments from Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital, the Company’s investment manager
“We are delighted that we once again have had such strong demand for our fundraise from both institutional and retail investors, the scale of which almost doubles our market capitalisation. We believe this reflects the widespread understanding of energy storage’s ever increasing role in national energy security and Gore Street Capital’s role as the leading investment manager in this unique sector at a time when there has never been a more attractive macro environment for investment in the asset class. As we approach our third anniversary, we are very proud of the growth of the Company. Gore Street has grown its portfolio from 6MW to 440MW, now the largest energy storage portfolio available to a financial investor and in parallel we have delivered on our promises to investors on a sector leading dividend, portfolio returns and diversification.
We look forward to investing the proceeds against our considerable pipeline of attractive value-accretive acquisitions and ongoing development opportunities for the benefit of our new and existing shareholders.”
[QD comment: The completion of this fundraise is very good news for Gore Street Battery Storage as it practically doubles its scale, moving it much closer in size to its most obvious peer – Gresham House Energy Storage. If government’s are to meet their commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, considerable investment will be required in battery storage and other renewable energy infrastructure. The latest £135m is but a drop in the ocean, and so there is plenty of capacity for both funds to grow from here, as well as ample room for new funds to enter this space. We think this is a multi-decade story.]