Quinbrook bags huge profit on sale of US wind, solar and battery company

Australian based Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has revealed gain on the sale of US renewables developer Sount Clean Energy that it bought for just $US6 million five years ago and has sold for $US1 billion ($A1.55 billion).

Quinbrook bought the Colorado based Scout when it was a start-up wind energy developer, and has since worked with founder and CEO Michael Rucker to turn it into a major wind, solar and storage developer with a pipeline of 22GW.

The Brisbane-based Quinbrook, which describes itself a specialist investor in green energy transition infrastructure, invested another $US470 million in Scout and announced on Friday it had sold Scout to Brookfield Renewable for US$1 billion in cash.

“We have exceeded our plans for investor value creation by sponsoring Scout from its infancy, and now is the right time for us to hand the business on for its next growth chapter,” David Scaysbrook, co-founder and Managing Partner of Quinbrook, said in a statement.

“Building Scout from a start-up into the significant and successful business it is today has been a five-year long commitment by the Quinbrook team working in a close partnership with Michael and Scout management.

“This venture was a resounding success on many levels. Scout hosts a remarkable collective of professionals, and we are proud of all that we have accomplished together.”

Scout says it has more than 1,200 MW of operating assets and a portfolio of another 22GW of wind, solar PV and battery storage projects across 24 states in the US.

“When Quinbrook first decided to sponsor Scout as a portfolio company, we were a very small team with big dreams,” Rucker said in a statement.

“With the leadership of David and his team, Scout has been able to rapidly expand its diverse pipeline of wind, solar and battery storage projects across the United States.

Rucker says more opportunities will emerge as a result of the US government’s climate and clean energy bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, and Brookfield will invest a further $US350 million to support Scout’s development activities.

Brookfield says the purchase take its development pipeline in the US to nearly 60GW of wind, utility-scale solar, distributed generation, and energy storage assets.