Altius Minerals (TSX: ALS) has signed a share purchase agreement that will lift its effective interest in Great Bay Renewables to 50% from 29%, part of a three way deal that also brings partner Northampton Capital Partners to an equal 50% stake.
Under the arrangement, funds managed by affiliates of Apollo will sell their membership interests in Great Bay to Northampton for total consideration of roughly US$390 million. Northampton will simultaneously sell its indirect interest in Great Bay, held through Altius Renewable Royalties Corp., to Altius.
Altius will pay US$168 million for the remainder of Altius Renewable Royalties, funded through existing liquidity and partial use of its credit facilities. Those facilities are being adjusted and expanded to reflect the balance sheet integration of its recently completed acquisition of Lithium Royalty Corp.
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Great Bay is currently split evenly between the Apollo funds and Altius Renewable Royalties, which in turn is owned 57% by Altius and 43% by Northampton. The transaction unwinds that structure by moving Apollo out and leaving Altius and Northampton as equal owners.
Brian Dalton, chief executive officer, said the company helped conceptualize and found Great Bay eight years ago and looks forward to working as an equal partner with Northampton.
“With almost 9 GW of generation under royalty GBR has reached an exciting inflection point in terms of its growth and royalty revenue trajectory,” Dalton said, pointing to a period of US electricity demand growth stronger than any in more than a generation.
Great Bay will continue to be led by Frank Getman and his team. The transaction is expected to close in late July, subject to customary conditions.
The move follows a separate investment last month, when Great Bay closed a roughly US$73 million royalty deal with Apex Clean Energy tied to the 311 MW Coles Wind project in Illinois, its largest single-asset royalty acquisition to date. Altius contributed about US$12.4 million to support its share of that funding.
Altius Minerals last traded at $62.23 on the TSX.
