SunEdison raises $590m for upfront consideration of First Wind purchase

SunEdison has raised $590m for acquiring Boston-based renewable energy firm First Wind.

Out of the whole amount, $190m has been raised by the firm by selling its 12.9 million shares in SunEdison Semiconductor.

The remaining portion of $400m, was secured through credit commitments with numerous financial institutions, the solar firm said.

The entire fund will be used to meet upfront cash payments for First Wind acquisition.

In November 2014, SunEdison and TerraForm Power had signed the $2.4bn deal for First Wind.

SunEdison is expected to contribute around $1bn out of the upfront consideration.

The deal is yet to receive regulatory approvals, and is likely to be closed by the first quarter of 2015.

SunEdison chief financial officer Brian Wuebbels said: "These funds are a major step forward in our acquisition of First Wind.

"Our ability to secure this funding, while preserving the upside in value from our ownership in TerraForm Power, speaks to the strength of the growth platform we are creating."

First Wind, which has almost 1.3GW of total power generation capacity, has projects spread across the northeast, the west and Hawaii.

According to the acquisition deal, SunEdison will acquire a further 1.6GW of pipeline and backlog projects, which have been added to TerraForm Power’s call right project list.

According to the deal, the power companies will be able to explore an additional 6.4GW of development in the future.

TerraForm will add 521MW of energy assets from First Wind to its portfolio, and might drop down 1.6GW of projects later in 2016 and 2017.