Plug Power, a global company in hydrogen solutions for the green hydrogen economy, established an equipment leasing platform and is targeting over $150 million in the near to mid-term. This platform is intended to enable Plug to access capital by leveraging its equipment asset base and to provide equipment financing solutions to Plug’s customers to support equipment sales growth.
As a first step in this platform, Plug signed three separate sale and leaseback transactions equivalent to ~$44 million with GTL Leasing, a portfolio company of Antin Infrastructure Partners. The sale and leaseback transactions include various gaseous and cryogenic assets such as trailers and storage tanks for the transport and storage of hydrogen molecules.
The funds generated will be reinvested into Plug’s core operations and focused on driving long-term growth and expansion initiatives.
“These initial transactions and platform mark a crucial step in building a strategic partnership with partners like GTL,” Paul Middleton, chief financial officer of Plug, said. “It provides for immediate capital with a path to additional capital over the near term, supports our growth in the green hydrogen sector and aligns with Plug’s financial and operational objectives. We are excited about this partnership and are optimistic about the upcoming opportunities and benefits this platform will bring with GTL and other partners.”
“We are pleased to participate in these three transactions with Plug Power and to support their continued growth in the green hydrogen sector,” Michael Koonce, CEO of GTL Leasing, said. “These initial transactions and the participation in Plug’s equipment leasing platform align with our goal of investing and supporting innovative and sustainable hydrogen technologies, while also providing us with a stable revenue stream. We look forward to advancing our partnership with Plug Power and exploring further lease opportunities.”
“When we invested in GTL earlier this year, we aimed to inject capital to diversify and strengthen the business’s equipment portfolio, and these transactions deliver exactly that,” Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and Stephan Feilhauer, senior partner and partner, respectively, at Antin, said. “These transactions not only provide GTL with a robust portfolio of storage tanks and trailers — both cryogenic and gaseous — but also support some of the largest distribution centers in the U.S.”
Goldman Sachs acted as Plug Power’s financial advisor on the transactions.
