sPower and CohnReznick Capital Markets Securities announced the placement of $168.5 million in back leverage to sPower provided by KeyBank, OneWest Bank and Zions Bank. The back leverage is for 25 solar assets, totaling 144MW in three separate portfolios.

“Back leverage allows us to reduce our cost of capital and frees up resources to pursue additional projects.” said Ryan Creamer, sPower CEO. “The transaction demonstrates the finance community’s interest in renewables and their confidence in sPower’s track record of performance.”

CRCMS acted as financial advisor to sPower and helped manage the transaction from term sheet execution to close. “We were thrilled to work with sPower in securing their first back leverage deal,” said Conor McKenna, managing director at CRCMS. “All of the counterparties involved contributed to what is just the beginning of a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship that will have significant impact on renewable energy generation.”

Stoel Rives, a business law firm known for its leadership in corporate, energy, environmental, land use and project development law, assisted sPower with the negotiation and documentation of the acquisition. “We congratulate sPower on the closing of its first back-leverage financing,” said Alex Mertens, lead deal attorney at Stoel Rives which advised sPower on the transaction. “We’re excited about the opportunities this financing creates for sPower and look forward to assisting them in the future.”

Salt Lake City-headquartered sPower is an independent power producer (IPP) that owns andor operates more than 130 utility and distributed electrical generation systems across the United States.