Gore Street hands contractor £16m stake in share placement

Energy storage investment firm Gore Street Energy Storage Fund has announced a share placement worth £15.8m to hand over 14m shares to long-term strategic partner Nidec Motor Corporation in return for more engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work.

The placing was priced at 112.9p per share, being the most recently announced net asset value per share as of 30 September.

"We are pleased to see a large strategic corporation within the energy storage value chain like Nidec taking a material position in the company," said chair Pat Cox.

Gore Street on Tuesday named Nidec as the EPC contractor for 75MW asset Dogfish asset in Texas, which has a target energisation date of December 2024. The contract follows Nidec's EPC work on the company's Ferrymuir (49.9MW) and Stony (79.9MW) assets.

As part of the firm's strategic partnership, for the next five years Nidec will be entitled to participate in upcoming competitive bids for EPC contracts and will be guaranteed participation in the second stage of the process if it can either match or enhance the terms offered by other contenders, Gore Street announced.

"The company's register now comprises wealth managers, institutional investors, retail and a growing number of strategic corporations like Nidec," Cox said.

"This diverse mix of holders has enabled the company to form strong strategic partnerships across the energy storage value chain whilst ensuring the stock benefits from good liquidity, with an average of c4.5m shares traded weekly over the last 12 months."