Corre Energy, the embattled storage developer for renewable energy, said it may not finalise a deal with a new strategic investor until 2025, as talks with interested parties were hampered by financial revelations in August and as the company carried out a review of its key projects.
Investment bank Rothschild has been advising the Dublin-listed, but Dutch-based company since April on securing a big external investor. However, delays in securing a strategic investor forced the company to take €5 million in stopgap loans from a group of big existing investors.
Corre said on Monday that while it aims to “finalise a form of investment in 2024, we recognise that, considering the Christmas break, a transaction may not complete until 2025″.
As it reported interim results, the company also said it was now prioritising capital expenditure on two projects in Germany with combined generation capacity of 640 megawatts (MW), with the first of these on track for a final investment decision in 2026 and entering commercial operation within 24-30 months of that.
Its previously most advanced project, the so-called Zuidwending (ZW1) in the Netherlands that would be capable of supplying up to 320MW of electricity to the grid, had been due to come on stream at the end of 2026. However, the company said that this has encountered permitting challenges, pushing back a final investment decision by 18-24 months.
“Given the current scenario and updated assumptions, we now anticipate [the] financial investment decision to occur post fourth quarter 2027 with [the] commercial operations date expected up to three years thereafter,” it said.
Corre has seen its shares slide 90 per cent over the past 12 months amid concerns over funding, board exits and revelations in August about loans to its founding shareholder, Corre Energy Group Holdings, that had been secured against shares in the listed company.
Corre said at the time that it had handed over a 19.3 per cent stake in the Dublin-listed company to Stream Street, a company owned by Northern Irish investor Frank Boyd, to settle a loan that had been backed by shares.
It also disclosed that Corre Energy Group Holdings had also pledged a further 15.4 per cent stake in Corre as security for other loans. Sources say that the majority of the loan capital raised by Corre Energy Group Holdings was put back into the business.
Stream Street and other investors that participated in the €5 million emergency financing deal in late September have since moved to secure board seats.
Corre had raised a further €2.58 million through an emergency share sale in July.
Its interim report shows that it was down to only €300,000 in net cash before that share sale. Its net cash currently stands at €1.4 million, it said.
“Following an operational review, Corre Energy has initiated a consultation process that may lead to the redundancies alongside potential operational expenses saving,” it said. The company has the equivalent of 32 full-time employees.
The company’s operating loss narrowed to €5.9 million in the first half from €6.5 million for the same period last year.
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