Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Vivint Solar, the rooftop power
producer owned by Blackstone Group LP, is seeking to raise as
much as $371 million from its initial public offering.
Vivint Solar plans to offer 20.6 million shares at $16 to
$18 each, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of
America Corp. and Credit Suisse Group AG are leading the deal.
Vivint, the largest U.S. residential solar installer after
SolarCity Corp., is planning to go public as demand surges.
Developers installed 792 megawatts of photovoltaic panels atop
U.S. homes last year, up 60 percent from 2012, according to the
Solar Energy Industries Association. It competes with companies
including Sungevity Inc. and Sunrun Inc.
“Residential solar has one massive advantage over big-scale PV: It’s cost-competitive in several states even without
federal tax credits,” said Nick Culver, a New York-based
analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “Compared to
commercial solar, homeowner PV has proven to be a much more
scalable business for developers such as SolarCity and Vivint.”
The company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol VSLR. It’s part of Provo, Utah-based Vivint
Inc., acquired in 2012 by Blackstone Group for about $2 billion.
It announced plans to go public on Aug. 26.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Will Wade, Randall Hackley