Gresham House Energy Sto... Share Discussion Threads

[marktime1231] 19/8/2021 16:18

What does new entrant Field mean to GRID. (Courtesy of Energy Storage News). Sounds ambitious ...

"Battery storage startup Field has secured a pipeline of 160MW of battery storage sites in the UK, and begun construction of its first 20MW site in Oldham, England.

The company – originally called Virmati Energy – was launched at the beginning of 2021 by Amit Gudka, co-founder of independent renewable energy retailer Bulb, which has more than 1.7 million UK customers. In its first six months Field has raised £10 million (US$13.76 million) in pre-seed capital and Series A funding, and is set to run Series B in September.

It will finance, build and operate the sites within its pipeline itself, utilising an agile operation strategy that has lower overheads according to Field, as well as a much more comprehensive view of the energy market than traditional infrastructure businesses.

Oldham is due to go live in April 2022, with its next site – Field Gerrards Cross – to follow shortly after in August of next year. Field is planning to get its current 160MW pipeline in operation by Q1 2023, and expand this to 1.3GW by 2024. It is already in advanced discussions for a further 330MW of battery storage projects."

Actually that sounds way too ambitious, the idea it can self-build and commission 1.3GW in such short time without partners, and by direct financing? 300-500MW sounds more realistic through 2024. Mature better capitalised upscaled companies would raise eyebrows with a develop and build plan as fast as Field is projecting.

Does this mean opportunities for GRID are becoming rare and more expensive, or is Field going to be delivering the sort of turnkey storage operations which GRID likes to invest in? So actually Field is competing with the development part of Gresham House. Is the market demand for storage so huge there is room for everyone? Or does this explain what GRID meant when it said it expects better value acquisition opportunities ahead?

Can the need for batteries be met, or does energy storage need to look again at alternatives to Lithium Ion? Flow batteries or ...

[igoe104] 27/7/2021 16:55

IC Write-up

[cwa1] 27/7/2021 08:19

Well, so far, it hasn't had the punters charging at the barricades ;-)

[igoe104] 26/7/2021 21:12

Positive write- up in Ic printed after the market had closed today. Hopefully it will push this back over £1.20 tomorrow

[speedsgh] 13/7/2021 22:17

Received just over 50% of placing shares applied for.

[pdt] 12/7/2021 07:52

"significantly oversubscribed and a scaling back"

Perhaps a bit of buying in the market today then?

[cwa1] 12/7/2021 07:37

Result of Placing and Total Voting Rights

Further to its announcement of 1 July 2021, the Directors of GRID are pleased to announce that the Company has raised gross proceeds of GBP100 million through the issue of 89,285,714 Ordinary Shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company (the "New Ordinary Shares") (the "Placing"). The Issue Price per New Ordinary Share was 112.0 pence. The Placing was significantly oversubscribed and a scaling back exercise has been undertaken.

[cwa1] 08/7/2021 10:26

1.75p XD today, pay day 30/7

[igoe104] 05/7/2021 08:27

I've just added another batch....

[damp seaweed] 05/7/2021 07:33

“That said you can now buy (at least you could earlier) at 115.4p ( less 1.75p to be returned to you at end of the month) so you can add at close to the placing price.
So actually 113.64p viz 112p or a premium of 1.24% plus dealing charges

[cwa1] 02/7/2021 12:43

Taken some at 115

[marktime1231] 01/7/2021 15:26

Having the premium knocked out of the share price is a price worth paying if it funds the growth of underlying NAV, which I hope it will, and strengthens the dividend prospects which I am sure it will and is why I invested. Not for growth, for income. It is an income investment.

Jam tomorrow, and the next day, which is what we can retire on. I don't want to sell what my retirement is based on to realise share price gains, I want the income and value to appreciate over time. Very happy with GRID and how it is proceeding, hope it keeps going until assets top £1B, if we only could invest earlier in order to exploit the benefits of NAV growth through development.

And since I bought in before the wide premium, it has just lost me on paper what I had gained on paper. While the top-drawer dividend is sustained or grows, all good.

[igoe104] 01/7/2021 14:38

Short term loss for a medium term gain. I'm happy to hold for 10 years plus and keep picking up the dividends.

[aa29] 01/7/2021 14:08

Sorry marktime, knocking the premium out of the price means you and private investors have just had part of your/their asset value shifted elsewhere.

That said you can now buy (at least you could earlier) at 115.4p ( less 1.75p to be returned to you at end of the month) so you can add at close to the placing price.

[marktime1231] 01/7/2021 12:45

Here for the income and delighted by that news of how well covered the current dividend is now. And I don't really mind that the placing has knocked the premium out of the share price, so long as NAV grows a little over time. Will it keep expanding ... while Gresham the parent has a tame customer for its investment projects and is getting all the benefit of the development?

If I had some cash in the right place I would be topping up ahead of the ex-div, note to self always keep a little cash on hand for surprise opportunitites.

[hiddendepths] 01/7/2021 10:00

I would imagine because the price escalated in response to the placing roadshow and the optimal indications of interest during that process were made by the institutions at the 112p price. In other words, the price was pretty much decided weeks ago.

[spangle93] 01/7/2021 08:25

So if there will be strong demand, why is the raise at 112p and not a price closer to current trading levels?

[pavey ark] 01/7/2021 08:17

I've been here since the beginning and happy with my investment.My only problem with the running of the company is that the original prospectus did say they would gear the balance sheet and therefore increase the dividend.As far as I can see they have just come back to the market for more cash.In a rush this morning so haven't gone over the details but first thought is that I'd prefer debt.

[pdt] 01/7/2021 07:54

I liked this part of the news today;

"The addition of projects comprising the Current Pipeline and Subsequent Pipeline, which are expected to be designed and built more cost-effectively than earlier projects, is expected to be transformational in terms of the revenue level at which the Company covers its dividend, its competitive position and the potential for value creation for shareholders"

And from the Trading Update "As a result, dividend cover is expected to be above 1.3x for the first half of 2021"

I suspect there will be strong demand for the fundraise.

[cwa1] 01/7/2021 07:50

Placing at 112p, etc:-

[marktime1231] 25/5/2021 18:24

Fair enough, so long as we are all equally in the dark and those close to the boardroom or those with informed computations aren't getting a better view. The quarterly update is something we end up keenly waiting for, hoping for a good step up in NAV and confirmation that the income stream is getting closer to covering yield.

As I say I am happy to follow someone else's judgement, who though, the share price now stretching to a wide premium could be an uninformed herd following each other. At the moment hard to judge where good value lies or where it might be in a couple of years. Well up but where is par, roughly, how will we know?

[hpcg] 25/5/2021 16:10

marktime - it isn't a collection of debt or trading companies though, it is real assets. These valuations don't change much even on a quarterly basis. It's deals and discount rates so quarterly is perfectly adequate.

[marktime1231] 25/5/2021 14:48

Very happy with GRID nuzzling 120p today a new high. It would be reaassuring if they published a regular update on NAV progress (and income generation maybe), quarterly reporting for a fund this size and activity leaves us guessing. How do you work things out in the meantime? Not bother, just trust the consensus that this will steadily enhance in value and cashflow as they execute the stated plan?

[marktime1231] 30/4/2021 23:19

Ooops, couldn't find a thread on GRID so I just started a new one by accident. It is green!!! Sorry folks.

[marktime1231] 30/4/2021 23:07

Very impressed with the 2020 and Q1 2021 reports this week.



Only been running a couple of years but GRID has now built capacity to 425MW and with cash in the bank to cover planned expansion to 700MW by this time next year, so far concentrating on assets which are operational and so low risk.

7p per share dividends were only 0.78x covered by income in 2020, but that overlooks the rapid expansion and new higher rate revenue streams available. It says the revenue runrate in Q1 2021 was sufficient to cover a maintained 7p dividend 1.3x, even before deploying the cash available to bring online another 275MW. That must mean there are prospects for a progressive dividend. NAV steadily growing and a rising share price which at 117p carries a 9% premium to NAV at 107p.

In future it says it now has the economic muscle to continue exploiting a 2022 onwards pipeline c. 500MW by debt fundraising rather than issuing new shares, and by investing in projects at an earlier stage it will see NAV enhancement with each new investment. A little bit more risk but not much more, and it says prices per MW to invest are coming down with scale.

The demand for energy storage to support a UK renewable energy capacity of 30-50MW will be around 20GW including longer duration, and yet so far we have battery storage of only around 1GW and all short duration. GRID is the leader in the market and intends to stay out front.

As an alternative to oil and gas stocks GRID seems an ideal income provider with low risk far horizon appreciating value and high yield. It is still early days of course, but it has already proven that it can easily cover an attractive dividend.

There are other options in this space, but I like this one.