Apollo Acquires 50% Stake in 2 GW Texas Solar and Storage Portfolio from TotalEnergies for $550 Million
Global alternative investment manager Apollo announced today an agreement with French energy giant TotalEnergies to acquire a 50% stake in a Texas-based portfolio, consisting of approximately 2 GW of solar and battery energy storage system assets.
The acquisition follows the launch by Apollo last year of Apollo Clean Transition Capital (ACT Capital), an investment strategy with $4 billion in capital, aimed at investing in companies to provide capital for their transition to clean energy and sustainable industry. Apollo also launched a sustainable investing platform in 2023, focused on financing and investing in the energy transition and decarbonization of industry, with the firm setting a goal to deploy $50 billion in clean energy and climate capital over five years, and seeing the opportunity to deploy over $100 billion by 2030.
Apollo said that its funds have deployed approximately $40 billion into energy transition and sustainability-related investments over the past five years.
Apollo Partner Brad Fierstein said:
“We are pleased to partner with TotalEnergies, a leading energy company at the forefront of the energy transition, and to invest in a highly contracted, scaled renewable asset portfolio. Apollo’s Clean Transition strategy enables us to be a flexible and long-term capital partner, supporting the growth of TotalEnergies’ Integrated Power business and capital recycling strategy.”
The Texas portfolio includes three solar projects with a total capacity of 1.7 GW and two battery storage projects with a combined capacity of 300 MW. TotalEnergies will retain its 50% stake, and will continue to operate the assets.
TotalEnergies said that the transaction will provide it with $800 million in cash, including $550 million from Apollo, and $250 million from shareholder loan refinancing. The company announced the transaction alongside an agreement to acquire Germany-based renewable energy project developer VSB Group for €1.57 billion (USD$1.65 billion).
Stéphane Michel, President of Gas, Renewables and Power at TotalEnergies, said:
“In line with our strategy, these transactions will enable us to optimize our capital allocation in renewables and contributes to improve the profitability of our Integrated Power business.”