Real Goods Solar, a leading provider of solar energy solutions for residential, commercial, and utility customers all across America, has signed a definitive agreement to partake in a merger transaction with Port Chester, New York based Mercury Energy, Inc. d/b/a Mercury Solar Systems, one of the region’s top solar companies.
The agreement stipulates that Real Goods Solar will issue 7.9 million shares of its class A common stock, subject to certain adjustments based on closing working capital and the price of the class A common stock, as the consideration for the acquisition of Mercury. The transaction is subject to the approval of the shareholders of each of Real Goods Solar and Mercury. A representative of Mercury’s current board will be nominated to join Real Goods Solar’s board of directors.
Mercury Energy was formed in 2008. The company has generated over $250 million in revenues, $35 million in 2012 alone, through the installation of more than 50 megawatts of solar projects. Mercury has no debt and assets including around $10 million of cash. Upon closure of the transaction this cash balance will be available to Real Goods Solar. The company plans on using this money for general corporate purposes and to accelerate the growth of the combined business.
Upon closing, over 50 Mercury employees will transfer to Real Goods Solar, including three experienced executives: Jared Haines, Anthony Coschigano, and Andrew Zaref. Mr. Haines, the President and co-founder of Mercury, has a proven track record in sales of commercial solar systems and played an integral role in building the Mercury Solar Systems business and brand. His new role will be Vice President of sales at RGS Energy, the Commercial and Utility Division of Real Goods Solar, where he will lead commercial sales in the Northeast. Mr. Coschigano, co-founder of Mercury, has many years of solar engineering and construction experience and will become Vice President of Northeast Operations at RGS Energy. In this position he will be helping the combined business to further improve all areas of systems deployment and productivity. Mr. Zaref, Mercury’s CFO and COO, has over 20 years of capital raising and financial management experience in high-growth businesses, and will step in as vice president of Project Finance at Real Goods Solar to lead the company’s residential and commercial financing and asset management strategies.
“This transaction brings together two of the country’s highly respected and experienced solar companies, creating a very strong and talented team to increase our market reach and our overall depth and breadth of capabilities,” said Kam Mofid, CEO of Real Goods Solar. “This acquisition significantly expands our presence as a major solar solutions provider in key solar markets across the East Coast. As an added benefit, it also strengthens our balance sheet with additional working capital that we expect to use to further accelerate growth in key markets across the country.”
Haines commented: “Mercury’s years of industry experience in designing and installing solar systems, including nearly 2,000 solar installations of varying complexity and size for commercial, residential and utility customers, is highly complementary to the business of Real Goods Solar. As we join forces with Real Goods Solar, our combined size, scale, and financial resources will enable us to increase not only our customer acquisition and project development capabilities, but to do so while bringing to our customers more comprehensive end-to-end solutions, including attractive project finance options.”
For further information, please visit www.realgoodssolar.com
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