?45 million debt facility for Good Energy

RNS Number : 1171A

Good Energy Group PLC

18 December 2014

 



18 December 2014

Good Energy Group PLC

("Good Energy")

£45 million debt facility for Good Energy completes strategic objectives for 2014

Good Energy, the AIM listed renewable electricity supplier and generator, is pleased to announce that, in support of its strategic plans for customer growth, generation development and funding support, it has entered into a non-recourse debt financing facility of up to £45 million with GCP Infrastructure Investments Limited, a London listed infrastructure debt fund (the "Facility"). 

In 2014, alongside growing its underlying electricity and gas customer base by 37% and developing and operating its own renewables assets of 24MW, this new Facility is the next piece of its strategy, enabling the construction of a further 18MW of solar sites. 

The Facility will support the further development and construction of Good Energy's solar generation portfolio, bringing the total capacity of wind and solar to 42MW. It will significantly help the Group meet its objective of generating 50% of its customers' electricity needs from its own renewable assets by 2016.

Good Energy will retain 100% of the equity in each of the sites and the Facility will be issued to Good Energy Generation Assets No. 1 Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary in the Good Energy Group.

The Facility will also be used to refinance the existing debt facility on the Hampole wind farm and its two existing operational solar sites.

The Facility has a fixed rate of interest, with interest charges commencing as the funds are drawn down and is on competitive commercial terms. The funds will be drawn to coincide with the development and construction of each project over the next six months, with maturities aligned to the income of each asset.

Current trading

The granting of the Facility takes place against a backdrop of trading conditions that have remained tough through the year, with the industry being impacted by the warmest year since records began, and by lower wind speeds over the last few months of the second half.  As a consequence, the Company currently expects its profit before tax to be approximately £2.2 million for the year ended 31 December 2014, before an exceptional cost of £1 million relating to the refinancing of the existing debt facility on Hampole wind farm.

Nonetheless, Good Energy continues to make strong progress increasing the number of customers it supplies. As at 30 November, electricity customer numbers were up 37% to around 50,500 (30 November 2013: 37,000) and gas customer numbers were up 85% to around 24,000 (30 November 2013: 13,000). Feed-in Tariff administration sites numbers rose 26% to around 73,000 (30 November 2013: 58,000).

Juliet Davenport, Chief Executive, said:

"During the year, we have made good progress towards our strategic objectives of delivering continued customer growth, increasing our generation capacity and providing funding sources for our generation assets.

"The new £45m Facility announced today, provided by GCP infrastructure Investments Limited through its commitment to the renewable sector, underpins our objective of generating more than half of our electricity from our own renewable assets by 2016.  It also provides us with long term committed finance, which will enable increased investment in both existing, and new projects consistent with our growth strategy. 

"While recent customer demand for energy has been affected by the milder weather this year directly impacting on our revenues for 2014, I am very encouraged by the increasing numbers of customers choosing Good Energy and look forward to updating you at our full year results." 

[ends]

For further information, please contact:

Good Energy Group PLC

Juliet Davenport, Chief Executive

Denise Cockrem, Chief Financial Officer                               01249 766795

N+1 Singer (Nominated Adviser & Broker)

Ben Wright, Jen Boorer                                                          020 7496 3000

Camarco (Financial PR Adviser)

Geoffrey Pelham-Lane, Billy Clegg, Georgia Mann                020 3757 4980

Good Energy Press Office                                        

Gill Dickinson                                                                          01249 765540

RM Capital Markets Ltd

Pietro Nicholls / Georgia Fotopoulou                                      0203 697 1768

Notes to editors

- RM Capital Markets LTD: Established in 2010 and with offices in London and Edinburgh, RM Capital Markets Ltd provides a full service fixed income agency brokerage, capital markets advisory and deliverable FX service to its corporate and institutional clients.

- Good Energy is a fast-growing 100% renewable electricity supply company, offering value for money and award-winning customer service.

- An AIM-listed PLC, and founder member of the Social Stock Exchange, its mission is to support change in the energy market, address climate change and boost energy security.

- Good Energy matches over the course of a year all the electricity its customers use with power from renewable sources.

- For the last three years, the company has topped the Which? energy company customer satisfaction survey. Good Energy's dual fuel tariff is cheaper on average than the standard tariffs sold by the 'Big 6' before discounts.

- It has around 50,500 renewable electricity customers and 24,000 gas customers (30 Nov  2014). It works with a community of more than 73,000 small and medium scale renewable electricity generators (20 Nov 2014).

- Good Energy is the owner of Delabole Wind Farm, the UK's first commercial wind farm, and also owns and operates Hampole Wind Farm, near Doncaster. It owns and operates two solar farms.

- Good Energy aims to deliver 50% of electricity from its renewable generation assets by 2016.

- It won Company of the Year in the British Renewable Energy Awards 2013 and was named as the best green electricity supplier 2013 by the UK's leading ethical and environmental magazine, Ethical Consumer. Most recently, it won Best Utilities PLC 2014 in the UK Stock Markets Awards.

 

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