All systems go at Gore Street Energy Storage with new acquisition, placing and retail offer – Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has announced a retail offer via PrimaryBid of new ordinary shares of 1p each at an issue price of 107p per new ordinary share. This represents a discount of approximately 7.8% to the closing mid-price of 116.0p on 17 September 2021 and a premium of approximately 5.9% to the last reported NAV of 101p as at 30 June 2021.
GSF has also made an announcement detailing a UK acquisition, an update on its international pipeline and that it is also conducting a non-pre-emptive placing of new ordinary shares in the capital of the company.
Proceeds from the proposed capital raise which comprises the placing and the PrimaryBid offer, will be deployed towards the company’s significant development pipeline of attractive accretive opportunities.
PrimaryBid Offer
GSF is making the PrimaryBid offer available exclusively through the PrimaryBid mobile app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. PrimaryBid does not charge investors any commission for this service. It is now open to retail investors and will close at 2pm on 28 September 2021. It may close early if it is oversubscribed.
No prospectus has been or will be prepared or submitted and subscriptions under the PrimaryBid offer will be considered by the company, in consultation with PrimaryBid, subject to conditions, which are available to view on PrimaryBid.com and the PrimaryBid mobile app.
There is a minimum subscription of £1,070 per investor under the terms of the PrimaryBid offer which is open to existing shareholders and other investors subscribing via the PrimaryBid mobile app. The shares will be issued free of all liens, charges and encumbrances and will, when issued, be fully paid and rank pari passu in all respects with each other and with the company’s existing ordinary shares including, without limitation, the right to receive all dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid by reference to a record date after the date of issue.
UK acquisition and pipeline update
The project consists of a 57MW energy storage system in Leicester, for which all land rights, grid connections and planning consents have already been secured.
It is currently scheduled to become operational in 2023 and will be connected to National Grid’s main transmission network rather than the local distribution network, which means that it will operate without an intermediary distribution network operator. This will reduce capex and operating costs and will be Gore Street’s first transmission connected site.
The expected total capex for the project is estimated to be around £22m over the next 12 to 18 months.
Meanwhile, GSF has over the last year stepped up its coverage of the North American and Western European storage markets, which are now beginning to grow. The company says competition is lower here, which can provide complementary and diversified revenue streams to the company’s existing portfolio of assets.
The manager is therefore actively assessing ready-to-build projects in geographies with competitive acquisition prices in diverse and comprehensive energy storage markets, which satisfy GSF’s return targeting North America and Western Europe.
In total, the company now has over 1.0GW / 2.5GWh in its overall pipeline, including a 2GWh active pipeline across North America and Western Europe, of which 160MWh is currently under exclusivity.
Proposed placing
With this latest acquisition, Gore Street has substantially committed all of its most recently raised capital. Therefore, to continue growth and to take advantage of the deep and growing pipeline of opportunities, Gore Street is proposing an issue of new ordinary shares at a price of 107.0 pence per share, by way of a non-pre-emptive placing.
The placing consists of the remaining balance of new ordinary shares which can be issued under the company’s placing programme and of new ordinary shares which can be issued under shareholder authorities granted at GSF’s AGM earlier this month. No prospectus is required.
GSF is proposing to issue up to 67,883,824 new ordinary shares, consisting of 57,647,059 new ordinary shares under the placing programme issue and 10,236,765 new ordinary shares under the additional issue.
The issue price represents a discount of approximately 7.8% to the closing share price of 116.0 pence per share on 17 September 2021 and a premium of approximately 5.9% to the last reported NAV of 101.0 pence as at 30 June 2021.
GSF : All systems go at Gore Street Energy Storage with new acquisition, placing and retail offer