Abengoa, a cleantech engineering firm based out of Seville, Spain, has asked permission to spin-off some of its assets into a US-listed “yieldco,” in a move that could reportedly raise up to $1 billion. The firm, which specializes in wind, solar, biofuels and desalination technology projects (including the 280 MW Solana project in Arizona utilizing parabolic trough technology), has filed an application to list a yieldco with US regulatory authorities. The firm declined to reveal the assets that would be included in the vehicle or the price range for the proposed offering.
Last year, Abengoa raised $689.9 million from investors through a secondary listing on the Nasdaq exchange. The company built up heavy debt in the years prior to the recent financial crisis, and had €8 billion of net debt at the end of 2013, dwarfing its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €1.4 billion.
