SunEdison's controversial acquisition of residential solar installer Vivint Solar has dragged on for five months since it was first announced. However, today Vivint issued a regulatory filing calling for a shareholder vote, putting the deal one step closer to closing.
Vivint's proxy statement follows a modification of the terms of the acquisition earlier this month, which saved cash for SunEdison while lifting a January 31, 2016 deadline to close. The new deal allowed holders of Vivint stock to accept additional SunEdison stock or cash consideration, and since that time shareholders have taken the cash option.
Basically, this is a formality, Mercom Capital CEO Raj Prabhu told pv magazine. Prabhu notes that as Blackstone holds a majority of Vivint Solar stock and has approved the deal, there are no real hurdles left on Vivint's side.
The ball is now in SunEdison's court, and according to the SEC filing the companies expect the merger to close in the first quarter of 2016. While Prabhu notes that anything can happen, he also says that this deal looks much better now that the U.S. federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) has been extended for another three-plus years.
According to recent rankings by GTM Research, Vivint is the second-largest solar installer in the U.S. residential market, with a 12% market share in 2015 so far.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.