TIDMGRID
RNS Number : 7869W
Gresham House Energy Storage Fund
28 April 2021
28 April 2021
Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc
(the "GRID" or the "Fund")
Quarterly NAV, Dividend and Factsheet publication
Q1 2021 NAV
Gresham House Energy Storage Fund Plc (LSE: GRID) (the "Fund")
announces its NAV as at 31 March 2021 was GBP371.8m or 106.66p per
ordinary share.
Dividend Declaration
The Board is pleased to announce a dividend of 1.75p per
Ordinary Share for the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021.
The dividend will be paid on 4 June 2021 to Shareholders on the
register as at the close of business on 14 May 2021. The
ex-dividend date is 13 May 2021.
Any such dividend payment to Shareholders may take the form of
either dividend income or "qualifying interest income" which may be
designated as an interest distribution for UK tax purposes and
therefore subject to the interest streaming regime applicable to
investment trusts. Of this dividend declared of 1.75 pence per
Ordinary Share, 0.75 pence is declared as dividend income with 1.00
pence treated as qualifying interest income.
Q1 2021 Factsheet
The factsheet for the period ended 31 March 2021 is available
at:
http://newenergy.greshamhouse.com/esfplc/
Extracted text of the commentary is set out below:
Financial highlights
From IPO to the end of March 2021, the Fund has delivered a
share price total return of 27.3%, compared with a 7.9% total
return from the FTSE All Share. The attribution of returns since
inception is 14.5% to capital and 12.8% to income.
For the quarter ended 31 March 2021, the Fund's NAV was
GBP371.8m or 106.66p per share, an increase of 3.70p per share in
the quarter.
There was a 4.36p uplift from the revaluation of projects
recently acquired (previously held at cost) while income in excess
of dividend distributions in the quarter accounted for a 0.72p
benefit. Partially offsetting this by 1.22p were a more cautious
set of assumptions which included taking into account the impact of
the corporation tax rate rising to 25% from 2023, as announced in
the recent Budget.
Dividend coverage in Q1 2021 was c.1.3x despite a significant
cash balance and, as such, the Fund remains committed to its
dividend policy of 7.0p per share paid in equal quarterly
instalments.
Finally, the Fund is exploring a debt facility which is expected
to drive down its cost of capital which, in turn, is expected to be
significantly accretive to GRID's overall return on capital, once
any debt facility is fully deployed. The Fund will provide a
further update in due course.
Portfolio activity & market outlook
The Investment Manager has had an active quarter, completing the
acquisition of 80MW across four projects (Glassenbury Extension
(10MW), Port of Tyne (35MW), Tynemouth (25MW) and Nevendon (10MW))
and a further 30MW since the quarter end in the form of Byers Brae
near Livingston in Scotland.
The Investment Manager is also preparing to commence
construction, subject to final due diligence, on a further 275MW
across five projects (one is 100MW, two are 50MW and the other two
are 40MW and 35MW respectively). The construction of these projects
will fully commit all the funds raised in the November 2020 equity
issue.
The Fund has a significant additional exclusive pipeline of
527MW across eight projects which will be built subject further
debt and/or equity fundraising.
The market environment remains favourable as evidenced by the
Fund's dividend coverage over Q1 2021. National Grid continues to
procure more in the way of frequency response than there are
projects in the market, with the suggestion that this will continue
for several more months. Over the next two years, the level of
procurement is expected to increase steadily.
In addition and long anticipated, the volatility in power
markets has increased significantly, as a result of several
instances of insufficient power driving power prices very high this
winter. This was caused by low wind generation (which has come out
much lower year-over-year due to low wind resource) and various
other factors, including forecasting errors (of supply and demand,
and outages of either generation capacity or inter-connectors at
different times).
Portflio & Pipeline
Current portfolio
Project Location MW Status
--------------------- ------- -------------------
1. Staunch Staffordshire 20 Operational - 2018
--------------------- ------- -------------------
2. Rufford Nottinghamshire 7 Operational - 2018
--------------------- ------- -------------------
3. Lockleaze Bristol 15 Operational - 2018
--------------------- ------- -------------------
4. Littlebrook Kent 8 Operational - 2018
--------------------- ------- -------------------
5. Roundponds Wiltshire 20 Operational - 2018
--------------------- ------- -------------------
6. Wolverhampton West Midlands 5 Operational - Q3
2019
--------------------- ------- -------------------
7. Glassenbury Kent 40 Operational - Q4
2019(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
8. Cleator Cumbria 10 Operational - Q4
2019(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
9. Red Scar Lancashire 49 Operational - Q4
2019(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
10. Bloxwich West Midlands 41 Operational - Q3
2020
--------------------- ------- -------------------
11. Wickham Market Suffolk 50(2) Operational - Q4
2020
--------------------- ------- -------------------
12. Thurcroft South Yorkshire 50 Operational - Q4
2020
--------------------- ------- -------------------
13. Tynemouth North Tyneside 25 Operational - Q1
2021(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
14. Port of Tyne Tyneside 35 Operational - Q1
2021(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
15. Nevendon Essex 10 Operational - Q1
2021(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
16. Glassenbury Extension Kent 10 Operational - Q1
2021(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
17. Byers Brae West Lothian 30 Operational - Q2
2021(1)
--------------------- ------- -------------------
Total Portfolio 425
------- -------------------
1. Operational assets acquired from the market, showing when
the project was acquired by the Fund and not the date of commissioning.
2. Asymmetric projects with lower Import Capacity versus its
Export, all other projects have a symmetrical Export/Import
Capacity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Location MW Commissioning
--------------------- ------- -------------------
Committed Pipeline
18. Project M Swindon 100 Q1 2022e
--------------------- ------- -------------------
19. Project E Leicester 50 Q1 2022e
--------------------- ------- -------------------
20. Project D Manchester 50 Q1 2022e
--------------------- ------- -------------------
21. Coupar Angus Co. Perth 40 Q1 2022e
--------------------- ------- -------------------
22. Arbroath Co. Angus 35 Q1 2022e
--------------------- ------- -------------------
Subsequent Pipeline
23. Project Emerald Republic of Ireland c.40 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
24. Monet's Garden North Yorkshire 50 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
25. Lister Drive Merseyside 50 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
26. Project G Northampton 50 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
27. Project P Preston 50 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
28. Project E2 West Yorkshire 100+50 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
29. Project B West Yorkshire 87 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
30. Project Y York, N. Yorks 50 2022
--------------------- ------- -------------------
Total Pipeline c.802
------- -------------------
For further information, please contact:
Gresham House New Energy
Ben Guest +44 (0)20 3837 6270
Jefferies International Limited
Stuart Klein
Gaudi Le Roux +44 (0)20 7029 8000
KL Communications
Charles Gorman
Camilla Esmund
Saurav Karia +44 (0)20 3995 6673
JTC (UK) Limited as Company Secretary
Christopher Gibbons +44 (0)203 846 9774
About the Company and the Manager:
Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc owns a portfolio of
utility-scale operational battery energy storage systems (known as
BESS) located in Great Britain. The portfolio has a total capacity
of 425MW. The Company is managed by Gresham House Asset Management
Limited under the leadership of Ben Guest. The Company was admitted
to trading on the London Stock Exchange (Specialist Fund Segment)
on 13 November 2018 having raised GBP100 million of gross proceeds
from investors. Including issuance under the Placing Programme, it
has now raised a total of approximately GBP358 million of gross
proceeds from investors.
The Gresham House New Energy team has a proven track record in
developing and operating energy storage and other renewable assets
having developed 264MW of Energy Storage Systems and approximately
290MW of predominantly ground-mounted solar projects. Gresham House
Asset Management currently manages approximately 232MW of solar and
wind energy projects.
Gresham House Asset Management is the FCA authorised operating
business of Gresham House plc, a London Stock Exchange quoted
specialist alternative asset manager. Gresham House is committed to
operating responsibly and sustainably, taking the long view in
delivering sustainable investment solutions.
www.greshamhouse.com
Definition of utility-scale battery energy storage systems
Utility-scale battery energy storage systems are the enabling
infrastructure that will support the continued growth of renewable
energy sources such as wind and solar, essential to the UK's stated
target to reduce carbon emissions. They store excess energy
generated by renewable energy sources and then release that stored
energy back into the grid during peak hours when there is increased
demand for it.
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