Investors Keep Faith in Solar Post Trump Election – MMA Raises $500mm

If you measure the impact of the election on investor sentiment, take one look at the $500 million that MMA Energy Capital announced at 8am the morning after election day. On November 9th, MMA announced a new joint venture named “Renewable Energy Lending” with TSSP, a TPG platform. TSSP is a dedicated credit and special situations platform with over $18 billion of assets under management.

SolarWakeup spoke with MMA Energy Capital’s Bob Hopper about the transaction and to discuss the current state of renewable energy lending. MMA has been operating the lending platform for just under 2 years and has committed $325 million in that time including capital for development activities, construction lending and permanent debt. The majority of the capital has been deployed into construction lending, long known for being complicated and difficult to get for many developers.

The $500 million committed to ‘Renewable Energy Lending’ is split between $425 million from TSSP and $75 million from MMA according to the 8K filed by MMA’s parent, MMA Capital Management which trades on the NASDAQ:MMAC.

Just after the election, treasury yields have gone up significantly. The 10-year treasuries have increased by 20% since the election results. Bob Hopper doesn’t see the immediate impact to solar lending,”Construction lending has been consistent on pricing through the years as opposed to the volatile treasury and mortgage yields.”

The success of the platform is indicative of the comfort that lenders like MMA have within the solar market. Hopper and many in the leadership team come from solar development companies like Enfinity and SunEdison. “We are excited to enter into this partnership that will increase the capital we have available to provide construction and permanent financing for this very active marketplace.  Our deep pipeline of opportunities continues to grow and the opportunity to partner with additional institutional capital will enable us to meet the anticipated growth of our business. We are extremely pleased to have TSSP as a partner in this endeavor,” Bob Hopper, Managing Director of MMA Energy Capital stated.

By Yann Brandt; November 15th, 2016