Category Archives: Renewables

Two Houston companies taken public by SPACs

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Verde Clean Fuels, a Houston-based company that aims to supply gasoline derived from renewable feedstocks, has been taken public by CENAQ Energy Corp, a SPAC also based in Houston.



Verde owns proprietary technology that is designed to produce gasoline from waste feedstocks (e.g. food waste, paper, grass, leaves and other greenwaste) that are otherwise landfilled. It has a demonstration facility in New Jersey. The company is conducting front-end engineering design for its first commercial facility near Phoenix, Arizona. It expects to spend $130 million in capex and complete the plant in the second half of 2024. Further plants are planned in Bakersfield, CA and Odessa, TX

The transaction values Verde at an enterprise value of $250 million or 1.8 times projected 2025 EBITDA and leaves $220 million of cash on the balance sheet to fund the initial capex and operating losses.

CEO Ernie Miller has been with the Verde (or its predecessors) since 2017. He initially joined as CFO and Chief Commercial Officer. Prior to that, he spent 12 years as CFO at Rodeo Resources, an E&P and midstream company. Prior to that, he spent 5 years at Calpine, organizing financing for cogeneration power plants.

The company is conducting a search for a Chief Financial Officer.

The stock (ticker VGAS) is up slightly since it started trading on February 16.]

Verde Clean Fuels – Investor Presentation

Rocket to the Moon

Another Houston company, Intuitive Machines, was also brought to market last week by a SPAC. The company is developing space infrastructure components such as lunar vehicles. The original $815 million deal was announced back in September. After going public at $10 per share on February 14, the stock took off like a proverbial rocket, reaching $46 just two days later. It is currently trading just under $38. The company has not issued any press releases that can account for the run-up in the stock.

Bad news for Good Works

Not such good news last week for Good Works II, a Houston SPAC. Its $723 million deal to take Direct Biologics, an Austin biotech start-up, collapsed. The deal was originally announced in October. No reason was given for the failure.

 

Houston SPAC to take Australian solar power company public

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Nabors Energy Transition Corp (‘NETC’) , a Houston SPAC, is to take Vast, an Australian company, public. After the acquisition is completed in Q2 or Q3, VAST will be listed on the NYSE, but will continue to have its corporate offices in Sydney.

Concentrated Solar Power Plant

NETC completed its $276 million IPO in November 2021. The sponsor of the SPAC is a company co-owned by Nabors Industries, a global leader in land-based drilling rigs and Tony Petrello, the current Chairman and CEO of Nabors.



Vast has developed a next generation of concentrated solar thermal power system. The system uses mirrors to concentrates the sun’s rays. That heat is then transferred and stored in molten sodium, which is then used to drive a steam turbine and create electricity.

Vast believes its system has two main advantages over solar and wind power. Firstly the system can provide efficient long-duration storage (8-16 hours). Secondly, it can generate process heat equivalent to burning fossil fuels, meaning it can be used in industrial manufacturing.

Vast has built a 1.1 MW demonstration plant in Australia that was operational from 2018 to 2020. It is currently developing a 30 MW plant that is expected to become operational in 2025 and a 20 ton per day solar methanol facility. These projects have received funding of up to AUD 215 million ($152 million) from the Australian and German governments

The transaction values Vast at $250 million, though the business will also have $336 million in cash on the balance sheet at close. The SPAC will contribute $286 million, while Vast’s owners will rollover their equity ($209 million). Nabors will also invest $15 million as will AgCentral, the main shareholder of VAST.

VAST Investor Presentation

Houston SPAC to take biofuels refinery company public

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Port Westward, Oregon

Industrial Tech Acquisitions II, a Houston SPAC, has agreed to take NEXT Renewables Fuels public in a transaction worth $530 million. NEXT, founded in 2016, is also based in Houston. Upon closing, the business will be renamed NXTClean Fuels.

NXT is in the process of developing a 50,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Port Westward, Oregon that will produce renewable diesel (‘RD’) and sustainable aviation fuel (‘SAF’).

Renewable Diesel

Renewable diesel is made from feedstock products such as vegetable oils, animal fats, used cooking oil and distillers corn oil. It uses the same source oils and fats as biodiesel. However, the refining process is different from biodiesel. The process is more capital-intensive, but RD is chemically equivalent to petroleum diesel and can be transported in petroleum pipelines.

Likewise, the refining process to make SAF is similar to regular jet fuel, except for the source feedstocks.

Construction of refinery

NXT expects the permitting of the Port Westward refinery to be granted by late 2023 with initial operations starting in mid-2026. The construction cost is currently $2.7 billion. (NXT’s own website shows a start date of 2024 and a construction cost of $2 billion, though this date and cost appear to be from June 2021).

The company aims to select an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) Contractor by the end of the year. Fluor is the frontrunner, as they have performed the engineering work so far for the company.

Supply and Offtake Agreements

NXT has an agreement with BP, who will supply 100% of the feedstocks for at least 5 years. It also has offtake agreements with Shell and Chevron. United Airlines, through its venture arm, has invested an initial $2.5 million in NXT. This investment could rise to $37.5 million, assuming certain milestones are met.

Forecast revenues

In its first full year of operation in 2027, the company is projecting revenues of $3 billion and EBITDA of $1 billion.  Half of the revenue will be generated from the sale of credits that arise from the Renewable Fuel Standard, enacted by Congress in 2005.

In the transaction, NXT will have an enterprise value of $530 million. It will also have $156 million of cash on its balance sheet.

Management

The CEO of NXT is Christopher Efird, an entrepreneur and investor who has led, or co-led the investment into 29 growth stage businesses. Many of those later went public.

David Kane, based in Las Vegas, currently serves as the CFO of NXT, though his title is Senior VP and Controller.  He has been the CFO at a number of small and medium sized companies in California and Nevada.

2nd SPAC run by Scott Crist

Industrial Tech Acquisitions II went public in January 2022. It raised $173 million and is the 2nd SPAC run by Scott Crist. The first SPAC took Arbe Robotics public in October 2021. Arbe is an Israeli company developing 4D automotive imaging radar. Arbe’s shares are trading at $4.00, compared to $8 when it went public.

SEC filing – Investor Presentation

BP to acquire renewable gas company for $4.1 billion

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BP has agreed to acquire Houston-based Archaea Energy for $26 per share in an all-cash deal that values Archaea at $4.1 billion, including $800 million of debt. The deal values the company at 20 times the expected 2023 EBITDA.



Archaea develops, constructs and maintains renewable natural gas facilities (RNG) that capture waste emissions from landfills and converts them into low-grade fuels and electricity. It currently has 13 of them. The company also has 33 landfill gas to electric facilities, some of which were added after a recent acquisition.

The company is based in the Galleria area and was taken public in September 2021 by a SPAC based in Pennsylvania, Rice Acquisition Corp.  The SPAC actually acquired Archaea LLC for $347 million and Aria Energy LLC for $680 million, with the combined business being renamed Archaea Energy. So, its a tremendous return for its investors.

It is not surprising that they have been acquired by a traditional oil and gas company. Due to high oil prices, they are generating lots of cash, but are under tremendous pressure to invest in anything but traditional oil and gas.

The company appointed Brian McCarthy as its new (old) CFO in August 2022.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022.

SEC filing – Archaea – BP

Renewables company appoints new CFO

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Archaea Energy has appointed Brian McCarthy as its new CFO, replacing Eric Javidi, who left in February after ten months with a $2.95 million cash severance.

Archaea develops, constructs and maintains renewable natural gas facilities (RNG) that capture waste emissions from landfills and converts them into low-grade fuels and electricity. It currently has 12 of them. The company also has 33 landfill gas to electric facilities, some of which were added after a recent acquisition.



The company is based in the Galleria area and was taken public in September 2021 by a SPAC based in Pennsylvania, Rice Acquisition Corp.  The SPAC actually acquired Archaea LLC for $347 million and Aria Energy LLC for $680 million, with the combined business being renamed Archaea Energy. The stock is trading at around $19, about a $1 higher than the price when the deal closed.

The company was supposedly conducting a search process for Mr. Javidi’s replacement, but ended up appointing Mr. McCarthy, who was the previous CFO and had been acting as the interim CFO since March. (Technically, he was the CFO of the legacy business from January 2019 to May 2021). Between his CFO stints, Mr. McCarthy was the Chief Investment Officer of the company.

No compensation details were disclosed for Mr. McCarthy. However, last month, the company adopted a new executive severance plan which limits the severance outside a change-of-control event to 1x base salary plus 1x pro-rata target bonus.

SEC filing – Archaea CFO appointment

Houston CFO leaves after 10 months with $3 million severance

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Eric Javidi, CFO of Archaea Energy, is leaving after ten months with a $2.95 million cash severance. In addition, six weeks ago, the company gave him stock worth $3.6 million that is now fully vested.



No reason was given for his departure. The company has started a search process for his replacement.

Archaea develops, constructs and maintains renewable natural gas facilities (RNG) that capture waste emissions from landfills and converts them into low-grade fuels and electricity.

The company is based in the Galleria area and was taken public in September 2021 by a SPAC based in Pennsylvania, Rice Acquisition Corp.  The SPAC actually acquired Archaea LLC for $347 million and Aria Energy LLC for $680 million, with the combined business being renamed Archaea Energy. The stock is trading at around $18, similar to the price when the deal closed.

As an aside, the Rice family are the majority owners of both the SPAC and Archaea LLC.

Mr. Javidi joined Archaea in April 2021, the same month that the deal with the SPAC was announced. He was previously the CEO of Southcross Holdings and a Managing Director at Kayne Anderson Capital. Both companies are primarily involved in energy infrastructure.

Severance and Stock Award

The base salary and employment contract for Mr. Javidi has never been publicly disclosed, so it is not clear how the $2.95 million severance was calculated. We do know that the company awarded Mr. Javidi 140,000 fully vested shares on December 29, 2021. Mr. Javidi promptly sold 55,090 shares for $949,200. He was also awarded 62,750 shares that were due to vest in 2024. With his severance, these are now fully vested.

General Counsel leaving after 7 months

The company also announced that Lindsay Ellis, General Counsel, is also leaving. She has only been with the company since July 2021. No details of her severance were disclosed. She also granted 33,333 restricted shares that have now fully vested, worth $600,000.

The company thanked Mr. Javidi for building out the company’s financial functions and Ms. Ellis for building the legal and HR functions. Undoubtedly, going public at the same time as trying to combine two businesses is a very stressful and complicated affair. It’s not clear what went wrong.

SEC filing – Archaea CFO departure

Archaea Investor Presentation – April 21

Nabors Energy Transition Corp completes $276 million IPO

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Nabors Energy Transition Corp (NETC) has completed its upsized Initial Public Offering by selling 27,600,000 units at $10 apiece.



The SPAC or blank check company intends to acquire a company that is involved in energy transition such as alternative energy, energy storage, emissions reduction and carbon capture.

The sponsor of the SPAC is a company co-owned by Nabors Industries, a global leader in land-based drilling rigs and Tony Petrello, the current Chairman and CEO of Nabors.

In fact, all the management team of the SPAC are employed by Nabors including William Restrepo (CFO), Guillermo Sierra (VP – Energy Transition) and Siggi Meissner (President of Engineering and Technology).

The management team will not be paid a salary by the SPAC until it closes on a transaction. However, to me, it appears that there is plenty of scope for conflicts of interest. In the prospectus, NETC states that ‘potential conflicts with Nabors are naturally mitigated by the differing nature of the investments that Nabors would consider more suitable’.

In August, Nabors issued a press release that ‘it continues investment in energy transition with Quaise Inc’. It provided $12 million in financing to Quiase, a company developing millimeter wave drilling technology to access deep geothermal energy. That technology appears to be within the remit of the SPAC, even if the size isn’t.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nabors-energy-transition-corp-announces-closing-of-276-000-000-initial-public-offering-including-full-exercise-of-underwriters-option-to-purchase-additional-units-301429394.html

 

 

 

SPAC takes public battery company headquartered in Houston

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Tuscan Holdings Corp, a New York SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) has taken Microvast public in a transaction that values the company at $2.4 billion.



Microvast is a leading provider of vehicle battery technology for all types of vehicles. The company claims its batteries have longer range, quicker charging and longer lifespan than its competitors. It had initial success with electric buses, especially in China.  Its products operate in 160 cities in 19 countries.

The company was formed in Houston in 2006 by Yang Wu. Nominally, the company has its headquarters in Stafford where it has a 4,000 sq. ft. office. The main operations have been in Huzhou, China where the company has a manufacturing plant with 1.7 million sq.ft.  Mr. Wu had previously founded a water treatment company in Huzhou that he sold to Dow Chemical in 2006.

Last year the company signed a contract to be the exclusive supplier of batteries to CNH Industrial, the parent company of Iveco, a leading commercial vehicle brand. The batteries will be manufactured in the company’s Berlin plant that was opened earlier this year. The company also has an R&D contract with BMW.

US focus

The company is pivoting to the US and earlier this year bought a 577,000 sq.ft. building on 82 acres in Clarksville, TN with production scheduled for 2022.

As part of the de-SPAC transaction, Oshkosh Corporation announced it would make a $25 million investment in Microvast. Oshkosh recently won a $480 million contract to replace the USPS mail trucks with a combination of electric and low-emission internal-combustion-engine vehicles.

CEO Wu appears to be based in Hawaii, according to his LinkedIn Profile. CFO Leon Zheng is based in Houston and is a Texas A&M graduate. Dr. Wenjuan Mattis, the Chief Technology Officer, is based in Orlando.

Financial Projections

For 2020, the company had revenues of $107 million and an operating loss of $51 million. It is projecting revenues of $2.3 billion in 2025 with EBITDA margins of 20%. The transaction with Tuscan will leave it with $600 million. The company will use this to complete and/or expand all the manufacturing facilities.

The company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘MVST’.

SEC filing – Microvast goes public

 

 

Two Houston blank check companies complete their IPOs

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Two Houston-area SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations), otherwise known as blank check companies, have completed their Initial Public Offerings (IPO).



ESM Acquisition Corporation

ESM Acquisition Corporation has completed its $300 million IPO.  The company just filed its registration statement in February.

The CEO of the company is Sir Mick Davis, who was the CFO of mining group Billiton plc (the predecessor to BHP Group) and the CEO of Xstrata plc, an Anglo-Swiss mining company that merged with Glencore plc in 2013. Until July 2019, Mr. Davis was the CEO and Treasurer of the British Conservative Party. He was born in South Africa but has British nationality. He is based in London.

The Chairman is John Raymond, who is Co-Founder and CEO of The Energy and Minerals Group, a leading natural resources-focused private equity firm, based in Houston. It manages funds of approximately $10 billion. ESM has its head office in the River Oaks area.

The company is looking for companies that mine commodities that are critical in order to achieve de-carbonization (think batteries for electric vehicles).

Peridot Acquisition Corp II

Peridot Acquisition Corp II upsized its IPO and raised $360 million. The Company’s sponsor is an affiliate of Carnelian, a Houston-based investment firm that focuses on opportunities in the North American energy space.

The company intends to target opportunities and companies that focus on environmentally sound infrastructure, industrial applications and disruptive technologies that eliminate or mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and/or enhance resilience to climate change.

The first Peridot Acquisition went public in September with its $300 million IPO. It In February, it announced plans to take Li-Cycle, a battery recycler, public.

 

ESM Acquisition Corp announces pricing of $300m IPO

Peridot Acquisition Corp II announces upsized $360m IPO

 

 

Contrasting fortunes for two Houston IPO’s pricing this week

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There were contrasting fortunes for the two Houston-based companies that were pricing their Initial Public Offerings this week.

Sunnova Energy International, a residential solar energy provider, priced its IPO at $12 per share.  That’s below the expected range of between $16 and $18 per share. However the company is selling the same number of shares (17.6 million). At that price, the company will raise $221 million and have a market value of $1.1 billion.  The shares will begin trading on the NYSE on July 25 under the symbol NOVA.



Castle Biosciences, based in Friendswood, priced its IPO at $16 per share. That’s at the top end of the expected range of $14 to $16 per share. Also the company also increased the number of shares on offer from 3.3 million to 4.0 million. The gross proceeds are expected to be $64 million. The shares will also begin trading on July 25, but on the Nasdaq under the symbol CSTL.

The company is a commercial-stage dermatological company that uses genomes to provide physicians and their patients with more accurate treatment decisions. The main product is a multi-gene expression profile test that predicts the risk of metastasis or recurrence for patients diagnosed with invasive cutaneous melanoma, a deadly skin cancer.

I’ve added the two companies to the list of Houston-area public companies which you can see here. However I have deleted American Midstream from the list, whose deal to go private was completed yesterday.

Sunnova IPO pricing press release

Castle Biosciences IPO pricing press release