Canadian Solar shares soar as BlackRock invests $500m for 20% of subsidiary Recurrent Energy

Canadian Solar shares soared more than 13% Tuesday mid-session on news BlackRock had agreed to a $500m equity investment giving it a 20% stake in subsidiary Recurrent Energy, a leading global solar PV and energy storage project developer.

Canadian Solar said the investment will provide Recurrent with additional capital to grow its “high value” project development pipeline, while executing its strategy to transition from a pure developer to one that will own and operate long-term in select markets including Europe and the US.

Plans call for this transition to “create a more diversified portfolio and provide more stable long-term revenue in low-risk currencies,” the company added, noting it will also enable Recurrent to “create and retain greater value in its own project development pipeline.”

Recurrent claims a 26GW pipeline of solar projects and 55GWh of battery storage globally. It has developed 9GW of solar and 3GWh of capacity.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and based in New York, owns about 7.5% of Canadian Solar.

“The infusion of capital from our partner BlackRock, who is also Canadian Solar’s largest institutional investor, will provide the resources needed to further scale Recurrent Energy’s platform and meet record clean energy power demand across the world,” said Shawn Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar.

David Giordano, global head of climate infrastructure and chief investment officer of transition capital at BlackRock, said, “Recurrent Energy is emblematic of our strategy of investing in leading renewable power generation assets and transition-enabling infrastructure.”

BlackRock made its Recurrent Energy investment through a fund managed by its climate infrastructure business.

At 1442 ET, Canadian Solar stock traded up 13.2% at $23.89 a share.