State-backed Gore Street Energy to raise funds to expand Irish assets

London-listed Gore Street Energy is looking to raise up to £190 million (€222 million) via a new share placing with a significant chunk of any money raised to be used to significantly expand its Irish portfolio.

The company, whose backers included the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), is an energy storage fund that invests in assets across Ireland and Britain. Overall, it has 11 projects with a combined operational capacity of 210MW.

Gore Street, which invests in utility scale energy storage projects, said it wants to triple its capacity in the Republic, up to a total of 180 megawatts.

Its assets locally consist of the Porterstown 3project, which is currently under construction with expected commissioning early next year, and the 30MW Kilmannock project, which is at pre-production phase. Gore Street said it wants to increase capacity at both sites from 30MW to 90MW.

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The company also has two 50MW projects in the north at Mullavilly and Drumkee, which are both now operating.

Price

The issue price for the share pricing represents a discount of approximately 6.2 per cent to the closing middle market share price of 108.7 pence per share on April 1st and a premium of approximately 2.4 per cent to the last reported net asset value (NAV) of 99.6 pence as at the end of December.

“Proceeds from the proposed capital raise will be deployed towards the company’s significant development pipeline of 1.3GW of attractive accretive opportunities and near-term potential completion of an acquisition of an 80MW project expected in the coming weeks,” it said.

“In addition, proceeds will be deployed in relation to accelerating development of the company’s existing portfolio, including the Republic of Ireland assets’ expansion from 30MW to 90MW,” Gore Street added.

Led by Alex O’Cinneide, Gore Street raised £60 million in an oversubscribed share placing late last year. It is now proposing an issue of new ordinary shares at a price of 102.0 pence per share.

Mr O’Cinneide said the placing comes at a “critical time for the development of the energy storage asset class, with increasing international regulatory support.”