US solar developer and asset manager Nautilus Solar Energy announces acquisition by Power Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada, a diversified management and holding company (TSX:POW).
Founded in 2006, Summit, New Jersey based Nautilus has developed, financed, constructed and/or managed a 126 megawatts of distributed generation assets throughout the United States and Canada.
The 100% acquisition in the management and Virgo Investment Group brings together PEC’S financial strength and dedication to long-term asset ownership together with Nautilus’s well-established platform for acquisition, development, construction, finance and asset management to propel the company’s further expansion into key community solar markets across the US. The company will continue to manage the solar portfolio developed with Virgo Investment Group.
“We are excited to reach this milestone with Nautilus after having partnered with the management team for the past four years to construct one of the country’s leading community solar programmers at the nascent stages of the community solar industry. We look forward to a continued strong relationship with Nautilus as the developer and asset manager of Virgo’s portfolio of 80 MWs of C&I and community solar functioning over 2,000 customers in eight states,”
Eli Aheto, Partner of Virgo Investment Group.
The present management team is eager to lead the company under the new ownership, together with Jim Rice and Laura Stern as co-CEOs and Jeffrey Cheng as President. “This transaction supports Nautilus’s established strategy of acquiring, developing, financing, owning and managing solar assets across the US, with a focus on community solar markets. PEC’s acquisition will not only offer Nautilus with competitive capital, but also the capabilities to accelerate expansion to achieve greater scale in the market,” remarks Jim Rice, co-CEO. “Our investment to Nautilus is really aligned with our philosophy of encouraging entrepreneurial teams in achieving our long-term value creation model. We have the highest confidence in the team’s ability to lead the company throughout the growing community solar industry,” notes Pierre-Olivier Perras, President of Power Energy.
