RE Royalties' first clients were directly related to our individual experiences: Client 1 was a former competitor of Peter's with a project in B.C. that he knew both technically and commercially; Client 2 was based in Europe, but the Chairman of that entity was known to both Marchand and Bernard from their mining backgrounds.
RE Royalties' client referrals grew quickly from this early start without any advertising. We found that word of mouth from our clients, and from service providers such as lawyers, accountants and engineers drove a tremendous amount of business our way, and we continue to benefit from that constant flow of opportunity.
One surprising outcome was that our fund-raising efforts also drove a substantial amount of new business to us. We cannot begin to count the number of meetings with prospective investors that started with us introducing our business and ended with the investor introducing us to a new potential client!
We have been in business for over four years and have pursued several financing strategies. Our initial fund raising was completed through friends and family with some assistance from a professional exempt market dealer. Our second financing included accredited investors and some family offices and at this time we also arranged some convertible debt.
In late 2018 we went public on the TSX Venture platform and simultaneously completed our third round of financing using both accredited investors as well as a direct retail investor approach using a group called Frontfundr. We have raised approximately CDN $25 Million so far and began paying a dividend to our shareholders one year ago. We are constantly looking at new ways, to raise funds to feed our growth.
Our investment mandate is restricted to renewable energy and our current portfolio includes wind, solar and run-of-river hydro generation. We are also excited about other areas in the renewable space such as energy storage, building energy efficiency and waste to energy.
We have a global mandate, although we are focused on OECD countries. To date, we have completed transactions in British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Texas, and Eastern Europe. Our target market is clients who are small to mid-cap renewable energy owners/operators, who have operating renewable energy projects, and who need our help to continue growing.
Our clients are generally under served by traditional financing organizations because they are not big enough or they do not need to borrow enough money to get the bank’s interest.
This seems counter intuitive, but the best example we can give is when a typical retail customer walks into a bank. If that customer wants to get a $500,000 mortgage, the bank is all over them, offering low interest rates and attractive incentives. If that same customer wants to borrow $5,000 the usual response is “put in on your credit card” … and pay that credit card level of interest!
Our clients are in a similar situation with a need to borrow relatively small amounts, in the range of between CDN $1 Million and CDN $5 Million. Their business simply does not generate enough long-term revenue for traditional financing institutions to show interest, and that is what creates our market opportunity.
RE Royalties' royalty financing solutions are designed to provide renewable energy operators and developers with the financial flexibility to grow without resorting to dilution, asset sales or restrictive debt covenants.
Learn more about our project financing options here.
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