Filed Sunrun IPO Plans Close to Emerging Publicly

Sunrun Inc., a company that leases solar power systems to homeowners, could make its initial public offering documents public as soon as next week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are co-lead managers of the IPO, which is currently filed confidentially under provisions of the JOBS Act with securities regulators, the person said.

A spokesman for Sunrun declined to comment. Dow Jones reported earlier this year that Sunrun was working with bankers on a potential IPO.

Sunrun installs solar panels on residential homes either for no upfront cost or at low cost. Sunrun owns the solar panels and receives monthly payments from homeowners for the power generated by the panels. It also receives government tax incentives to cover its costs.

The San Francisco-based company, which launched in 2007, competes with publicly traded SolarCity Corp., and Vivint Solar Inc.

Should Sunrun go public, it would be a rare instance of a clean-technology IPO in recent years. The clean-tech sector received billions of dollars from venture capitalists in the past decade, but there have been few successful exits. Successes include Sunrun's competitor SolarCity, which has risen since the pricing of its IPO in late 2012 at $8 a share to trading at around $56 a share today. SolarCity's market capitalization is about $5.36 billion.

This year another company in the sector, venture-backed SolarEdge Technologies Inc., which makes power electronics used in solar installations, went public. SolarEdge and Sunrun are both benefiting from a continuing rapid rise in the adoption of solar technology. SolarEdge priced its IPO at $18 per share in March and has since risen in trading, reaching $38.91 at the close of trading Tuesday.

Sunrun's registration filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission will reveal that the company had close to 80,000 customers as of the end of the first quarter, according to the person familiar with the matter. That compares with the 218,000 customers that SolarCity had as of the first quarter, and Vivint's 42,146.

Sunrun also had contracts to receive about $1.7 billion in payments from customers, the person said. Only a small portion of that is recognized as revenue each year. SolarCity noted $6.1 billion in contracted payments in its most recent earnings statement.

It remains unclear what value Sunrun will seek in the IPO. In its last private round, the company was valued at about $1.3 billion. Venture investors in the company include Accel Partners, Foundation Capital, Madrone Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Write to Yuliya Chernova at [e-mail]

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