Item 1. Business
GENERAL
We invest in climate solutions developed or sponsored by leading companies in the energy efficiency, renewable energy and other sustainable infrastructure markets. We believe that we are one of the first U.S. public companies solely dedicated to climate solution investments. Our goal is to generate attractive returns from a diversified portfolio of project company investments with long-term, predictable cash flows from proven technologies that reduce carbon emissions or increase resilience to climate change. Our vision is that every investment improves our climate future. In executing this vision, we focus on a wide variety of climate solutions including:
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•Building Energy Efficiency | •LED Building Lighting |
•Energy Efficient Heating, Cooling and Ventilation | •Building Controls and Sensors |
•Combined Heat and Power Systems | •Electric Distribution Systems |
•LED Street Lighting | •Distributed Commercial and Industrial Solar |
•Community Solar | •Residential Solar |
•Utility Scale Solar | •Utility Scale Wind |
•Water and Stream Distribution Systems | •Storm Water Management |
•Nature Based Solutions and Environmental Credits | •Other Climate Related Technologies |
We are internally managed, and our management team has extensive relevant industry knowledge and experience. We have long-standing relationships with the leading energy service companies (“ESCOs”), manufacturers, project developers, utilities, owners and operators, which provide recurring, programmatic investment and fee-generating opportunities. Additionally, we have relationships with leading commercial and investment banks and institutional investors from which we are referred additional investment and fee-generating opportunities.
We completed approximately $1.7 billion of transactions during 2021, compared to approximately $1.9 billion during 2020. As of December 31, 2021, we held approximately $3.6 billion of transactions on our balance sheet, which we refer to as our “Portfolio.” For those transactions that we choose not to hold on our balance sheet, we transfer all or a portion of the economics of the transaction, typically using securitization trusts, to institutional investors in exchange for cash and, in certain cases, residual interests in the trusts and ongoing fees. As of December 31, 2021, we managed approximately $5.2 billion in these trusts or vehicles that are not consolidated on our balance sheet. When we combine these assets with our Portfolio, as of December 31, 2021, we manage approximately $8.8 billion of assets, which we refer to as our “Managed Assets.”
Our investments take many forms, including equity, joint ventures, land ownership, loans, and other financing transactions. We also generate ongoing fees via off-balance sheet securitization transactions, advisory services, and asset management. We use borrowings as part of our strategy to fund our investments in climate solutions and have available to us a broad range of financing sources including short-term commercial paper issuances, revolving credit facilities, non-recourse or recourse debt, equity, and off-balance sheet securitization structures. We calculate the estimated carbon emission savings using CarbonCount®, a proprietary tool which measures the efficiency with which our investments reduce carbon emissions, and generally provide the associated CarbonCount metrics for our debt issuances. In addition, certain of our debt issuances meet the environmental eligibility criteria for green bonds as defined by the International Capital Markets Association’s Green Bond Principles, which we believe makes our debt more attractive for many investors compared to such offerings that do not qualify under these principles. A further description of our financing activities can be found herein.
We have a large and active pipeline of potential new opportunities that are in various stages of our underwriting process. We refer to potential opportunities as being part of our pipeline if we have determined that the project fits within our climate solutions investment strategy and exhibits the appropriate risk and reward characteristics through an initial credit analysis, including a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the opportunity, as well as research on the relevant market and sponsor.
Our pipeline of transactions that could potentially close in the next 12 months consists of opportunities in which we will be the lead originator as well as opportunities in which we may participate with other institutional investors. As of December 31, 2021, our pipeline consisted of more than $4.0 billion in new equity, debt and real estate opportunities. There can, however, be no assurance with regard to any specific terms of such pipeline transactions or that any or all of the transactions in our pipeline will be completed.
We are committed to leadership in transparent disclosure on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) matters. Beginning in 2013, we became one of the first capital providers to evaluate the carbon efficiency of our Portfolio by utilizing CarbonCount. In 2017, we believe we were the first U.S-based public company to commit to the Climate Disclosure Standards Board led initiative on implementing the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) and provide the recommended disclosures in our Form 10-K. In 2020, we joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (“PCAF”), a global financial industry-led partnership to implement a consistent and transparent disclosure framework to report carbon emissions and avoided emissions resulting from financed assets. We anticipate that our reporting in accordance with PCAF will be implemented by 2023. For further information on our ESG disclosures, see the discussion in the sections titled “Investment Strategy” and “Environmental and Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance” herein. We are committed to providing transparent disclosures on our human capital management, which can be found herein in the section titled “Human Capital Strategy.” In 2021, we founded the Hannon Armstrong Foundation, which provides cash and in-kind support to programs that align with our philanthropic priorities of ensuring equal access to climate solutions, empowering and creating opportunity for marginalized individuals and communities, and creating a local impact.
We elected to be taxed as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes commencing with our taxable year ended December 31, 2013, and operate our business in a manner that permits us to maintain our exemption from registration as an investment company under the 1940 Act.
INVESTMENT STRATEGY
With scientific consensus that global-warming trends are linked to human activities and result in various extreme weather events, we believe our firm is well-positioned to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns by investing in, and managing a portfolio of, assets that address climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. Further, with increasing weather-related disasters, we see similar investment opportunities in infrastructure assets that mitigate the impact of, and increase the resiliency to, these weather events and other adverse impacts of climate change.
Our vision is that every investment improves our climate future and thus the carbon impact of an investment is at the core of our business model. We believe that climate positive investments will produce attractive risk adjusted returns and we require investments to be neutral to negative on incremental carbon emissions or have some other tangible environmental benefit such as reducing water consumption or increasing resilience to climate change influenced weather events.
Our climate-positive investment thesis is based on the following theories:
•more efficient technologies are more productive and thus should lead to higher economic returns;
•lower portfolio risk is inherent in a portfolio of smaller investments, generated by trends of increasing decentralization and digitalization of energy assets;
•investing in assets aligned with scientific consensus and broadly held societal values will reduce potential regulatory and social costs through more internalization of externalities; and
•assets that reduce carbon emissions represent an embedded option that may increase in value if regulatory authorities were to set a price on carbon emissions.
We believe combining this investment thesis with our multi-decade experience in investing in our markets through multiple interest rate and business cycles, intermittent governmental support for reducing carbon emissions and several cycles of business expansions in renewable and other sustainable infrastructure markets, allows us to earn attractive risk-adjusted returns on the assets in which we invest. We also believe there is a very large potential market opportunity as the legacy technologies for generating and using energy and the systems that produce carbon emissions are retired and replaced by low-to-no carbon emission systems. Mitigation and resiliency investments continue to grow to address severe weather events and other climate change impacts.
Our investments in climate solutions are focused on three markets:
•Behind-the-Meter (“BTM”): distributed building or facility projects, which reduce energy usage or cost through the use of solar generation and energy storage or energy efficiency improvements including heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (“HVAC”), lighting, energy controls, roofs, windows, building shells, and/or combined heat and power systems;
•Grid-Connected (“GC”): projects that deploy cleaner energy sources, such as solar and wind to generate power where the off-taker or counterparty is part of the wholesale electric power grid; and
•Sustainable Infrastructure (“SI”): upgraded transmission and distribution systems, water and storm water infrastructure, and other projects that improve water or energy efficiency, increase resiliency, positively impact the environment or more efficiently use natural resources.
Of our pipeline, 48% is related to BTM assets and 37% is related to GC assets, with the remainder related to SI. We prefer investments in which the assets use proven technology and have a long-term, creditworthy off-taker or counterparties. For BTM assets, the off-taker or counterparty may be the building owner or occupant, and our investment may be secured by the installed improvements or other real estate rights. For GC assets, the off-takers or counterparties may be utility or electric users who have entered into contractual commitments, such as power purchase agreements (“PPAs”), to purchase power produced by a renewable energy project at a specified price with potential price escalators for a portion of the project’s estimated life.
We make our investments utilizing a variety of structures, including:
•equity investments in either preferred or common structures in unconsolidated entities which own renewable energy or energy efficiency projects;
•commercial and government receivables or securities, such as loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects; and
•real estate, such as land or other assets leased for use by GC projects typically under long term leases.
Our equity investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects are operated by various renewable energy companies or by joint ventures in which we participate. These transactions allow us to participate in the cash flows associated with these projects, typically on a priority basis. Our energy efficiency debt investments are usually assigned the payment stream from the project savings and other contractual rights, often using our pre-existing master purchase agreements with the ESCOs. Our debt investments in various renewable energy or other sustainable infrastructure project companies or portfolios of project companies are in many cases secured by the installed improvements, or other real estate rights. We also own, directly or through equity investments, land that is leased under long-term agreements to renewable energy projects where our investment returns are typically senior to most project costs, debt, and equity.
We often make investments where we hold a preferred or mezzanine position in a project company where we are subordinated to project debt and/or preferred forms of equity. Investing greater than 10% of our assets in any individual project company requires the approval of a majority of our independent directors. We may adjust the mix and duration of our assets over time in order to allow us to manage various aspects of our Portfolio, including expected risk-adjusted returns, macroeconomic conditions, liquidity, availability of adequate financing for our assets, and the maintenance of our REIT qualification and our exemption from registration as an investment company under the 1940 Act.
As of December 31, 2021, our Portfolio consisted of over 285 investments, with approximately 53% of our Portfolio invested in BTM assets and approximately 47% invested in GC assets, which include our land holdings. The mix of our Portfolio is expected to vary over time, as we seek to manage the diversity of our Portfolio by, among other factors, project type, project operator, type of investment, type of technology, transaction size, geography, obligor, and maturity.
As part of our investment process, we calculate the ratio of the estimated first year of metric tons of carbon emissions avoided by our investments divided by the capital invested to quantify the carbon impact of our investments. In this calculation, which we refer to as CarbonCount, we use emissions factor data, expressed on a CO2 equivalent basis, from the U.S. Government or the International Energy Administration to an estimate of a project’s energy production or savings to compute an estimate of metric tons of carbon emissions avoided. We estimate that our investments originated in 2021 will reduce annual carbon emissions by approximately 0.8 million metric tons, equating to a CarbonCount of 0.50. In addition to carbon, we also consider other environmental attributes, such as water use reduction, stormwater remediation benefits and stream restoration benefits.
We believe that our long history of climate solutions investing, the experience, expertise and relationships of our management team, the anticipated credit strength of the obligors or investees involved in our investments and the size and growth potential of our market, position us well to capitalize on our strategy.
Refer to Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations, for additional discussion on the performance of our Portfolio.
FINANCING STRATEGY
We believe we have available a broad range of financing sources as part of our strategy to fund our investments in climate solutions. We may finance our investments through the use of non-recourse debt, recourse debt or equity and may also decide to finance such transactions through the use of off-balance sheet securitization structures. When issuing debt, we generally provide the estimated carbon emission savings using CarbonCount. In addition, certain of our debt issuances meet the environmental eligibility criteria for green bonds as defined by the International Capital Markets Association’s Green Bond Principles, which we believe makes our debt more attractive for many investors compared to such offerings that do not qualify under these principles.
We plan to raise additional equity capital and continue to use fixed and floating rate borrowings, which may be in the form of short-term commercial paper issuances, revolving credit facilities, term loans, repurchase agreements, and public and private debt issuances as a means of financing our business. We also expect to use both on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet securitizations. We may also consider the use of special purpose entities or funds in which outside investors participate to allow us to expand the investments that we make or to manage our Portfolio diversification.
The decision on how we finance specific assets or groups of assets is largely driven by market conditions including the overall interest rate environment, prevailing credit spreads and the terms of available financing. During periods of market disruption, certain sources of financing may be more readily accessible than others which may impact our financing decisions. Over time, as market conditions change, we may use other forms of financial leverage in addition to these financing arrangements. Although we are not restricted by any regulatory requirements as to the type or amount of financial leverage we may use, we do seek to, but are not required to, operate within certain metrics, including maintaining a financial leverage ratio, defined as the ratio of debt to equity, at or below 2.5 to 1. In addition, our board of directors (our “Board”) has established a current target range for our percentage of fixed rate debt to total debt of between 75% and 100%. See additional discussion in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources” regarding our ongoing evaluation of our leverage limits and fixed-rate debt targets.
For those transactions that we choose not to hold on our balance sheet, we transfer all or a portion of the economics of the transaction, typically using securitization trusts, to institutional investors in exchange for cash and/or residual interests in the assets and in some cases, ongoing fees. The availability of securitization counterparties has remained high throughout various market cycles due to investor demand for high credit quality, long-term climate-positive investments. We may arrange such securitizations of loans or other assets prior to originating the transaction and thus avoid exposure to credit spread, interest rate and funding risks. We also typically manage and service these assets in exchange for fees. We may also use other funds or structures where institutional investors purchase all or a portion of the economics of the transaction and where we may receive upfront or ongoing fees for managing the assets. We periodically provide other services, including arranging financings that are held on the balance sheets of other investors and advising various companies with respect to structuring investments.
Refer to Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources, for additional discussion on our financings and our ratios and Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Notes 5, 7 and 8 to our financial statements for further information on the types and amounts of our financing activities.
HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGY
An emphasis on a durable social fabric, including diverse, engaged, and fairly compensated staff, is an important factor in our financial success. Our culture is focused on hiring and retaining highly talented employees with diverse backgrounds and empowering them to create value for our stockholders, and our success is dependent on employee understanding of and investment in their role in that value creation. Our employees are responsible for upholding our purpose, values, strategy, and talent leadership expectations.
It is important to us that our employees are engaged in our mission of sustainability because we believe engagement improves their performance, as well as our employee recruitment and retention. Our chief executive officer periodically leads employee meetings intended to reinforce the importance of sustainability and regularly meets with small groups of employees to receive their feedback on our business. We also meet no less than quarterly as a Company to provide information to employees on our mission, strategic planning and financial results. We continuously evaluate our employees’ level of engagement through in-person meetings or remote one-on-one check-in calls that include asking open-ended questions and through formal surveys or similar tools administered on a periodic basis.
We adhere to a blended learning approach with the understanding that our people learn from experiences (on the job and in life), from other people (mentors or supportive managers), and from formal learning and training programs. We acknowledge that learning is highly individualized and needs to be offered in a way that is most conducive to a specific learner’s needs. We run a periodic education series that includes internal and external speakers presenting topics of interest that are relevant to our employees. We provide multiple learning solutions that cover a wide range of areas such as diversity, equity, and inclusion training, leadership skills, financial knowledge, technology training, and presentation skills. We also support the pursuit of
advanced certifications and degrees in areas including business, science and engineering, and liberal and fine arts and employ formal and informal coaching arrangements.
We care about our employees’ employment experience and recognize them as individuals who are motivated in different ways. Managers hold performance conversations with their employees on a periodic basis (targeting a minimum of twice a year) to ensure they receive the performance feedback they deserve, and to allow managers to obtain insight into how to support the development of their staff, and to ensure that performance expectations are clear and aligned with the overarching objectives of the Company. We also provide continuous dialogue in between these formal touchpoints.
We believe we provide attractive benefits that promote the health of our employees and their families and design compelling job opportunities, aligned with our mission, in an energizing work environment. We also encourage our employees to continue to develop in their careers, including by obtaining advanced degrees or professional certifications. We compensate our employees according to our fair remuneration policies and believe in paying for performance. Therefore, employees generally receive a portion of their compensation in the form of annual bonuses as well as equity grants which are both tied in part to the Company’s financial performance. We encourage our employees to contribute their time to support various community and charitable activities and sponsor several local community organizations with a primary focus on organizations addressing issues around environmental and social justice. In addition to competitive base salaries, cash bonuses, and equity participation for most employees, we are committed to continuously evaluating and ensuring the competitiveness of our benefits offerings so that we meet the various needs of our employees and their families. Despite a healthcare environment that is facing rising costs, we continue to pay substantially all of the cost of our employees’ healthcare insurance. Further, in addition to what we believe to be market total rewards benefits, we provide additional benefits, such as on-site influenza and COVID-19 vaccination clinics and a tuition reimbursement program.
We take a values-driven, broad view of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe that fostering an internal climate that is supportive and allows people of all backgrounds to flourish lends itself to the highest levels of company performance and facilitates the attraction and retention of best-in-class talent. We also believe it is inherently the right way to conduct business. We support an innovative, creative culture where people can bring their best and most authentic selves to work. Employees who hold divergent opinions are encouraged to voice their views. We track and report internally on key talent metrics including workforce demographics, critical role pipeline data, diversity data, and engagement and inclusion indices.
Decisions regarding staffing, selection, and promotions are made on the basis of individual qualifications related to the requirements of the position. We are committed to identifying and developing the talents of our next generation of leaders. We endeavor to select qualified individuals from a diverse pool of candidates derived from broad outreach efforts when we are recruiting. We are committed to the sourcing and/or promotion of highly-qualified women, people of color and other under-represented groups for management and Board positions. To better support our female and underrepresented employees in their onboarding, training, development and progression within the Company, we have established a mentorship program where certain members of our Board mentor female employees who are developing managers.
Our policy is “equal pay for equal work” in compliance with applicable state law. Compensation for our employees is based upon experience, seniority, educational attainment, and individual contribution and company performance against goals.
As of December 31, 2021, we employed 99 people. We intend to hire additional business professionals as needed to assist in the implementation of our business strategy. Refer to “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Results of Operations – Human Capital Metrics” for discussion of metrics related to our Human Capital Strategy.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
We own and invest in a diversified portfolio of climate solutions projects focused on reducing or mitigating the impacts of climate change. Under the direction of our chief executive officer and the Board, we are focused on achieving a high level of environmental and social responsibility and strong corporate governance. The Nominating, Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee of our Board is responsible for our ESG oversight, including related policies and communications. Additionally, we have a committee of employees from across our organization that is focused on implementing ESG strategies and policies and reports directly to our chief executive officer. Annually we publish a report that illustrates our progress on these matters.
Environmental Responsibility. Our business and business strategy are focused on addressing climate change, in part through the reduction of carbon emissions that have been scientifically linked to climate change. As described under “Investment Strategy”, we quantify the carbon impact of each of our investments. In addition, we operate our business in a manner intended to reduce our own environmental impact, including by purchasing carbon-free renewable energy for our office, encouraging recycling and composting, and offering clean transportation employee incentives for electric and hybrid vehicles. We have also adopted policies focused on minimizing the environmental impact of our operations.
Through our membership in the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, we are pleased to participate in the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which brings the financial sector together to accelerate a shared commitment to decarbonizing
the global economy. In 2021, we established targets for our transition to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 using the foundational framework developed by the Science Based Targets Initiative.
We are a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, an initiative focused on responsible business practices related to human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. We participate in a number of initiatives and coalitions that share our commitment to climate action, corporate sustainability, climate-risk disclosure and reporting, and the expansion of clean energy including the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, the United Nations Global Compact campaign entitled Business Ambition for 1.5°, Climate Action 100+, and the reporting framework established by an international consortium of business and environmental NGOs referred to as the Climate Disclosure Standards Board.
Social Responsibility. We recognize that the effects of pollution, environmental degradation, increased climate-fueled extreme weather events, and the economic transition away from fossil fuels fall most heavily on marginalized communities in our society, especially communities of color. We know that the effects of climate change are already disproportionately impacting disadvantaged communities, and these adverse outcomes will be exacerbated if we do not eliminate harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Equally so, we acknowledge the legacy of discriminatory policies in creating and perpetuating this imbalance.
We believe in every person’s inherent worth and dignity and that we should all have access to clean water, clean air, healthy food, resilient and reliable shelter and energy, and good paying jobs. We believe these disparities must be addressed while society works to accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy, both here in the United States and across the globe, a concept we refer to as “climate justice”.
We are determined to incorporate climate justice ideals and actions across our entire business, including in our process for underwriting investments, our engagement with business partners, our human capital strategy, philanthropy, and policy advocacy efforts. In 2021, we established the Hannon Armstrong Foundation, that provides cash and in-kind support to programs which provide climate solutions investments and career opportunities for those from historically underrepresented communities, as well as organizations across our local region that seek to strengthen the social fabric and promote economic and climate resiliency.
Corporate Governance. We are focused on achieving best-in-class corporate governance practices to help ensure that our team will operate in a manner consistent with our organizational mission and deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns. Our corporate governance philosophy is based on maintaining a close alignment of our interests with those of our stakeholders. Notable features of our corporate governance structure include the following:
•our Corporate Governance Guidelines provide for a majority vote policy for the election of directors pursuant to which any nominee who receives a greater number of votes “withheld” from his or her election than votes “for” such election shall promptly tender his or her resignation to our Board for their consideration to accept or reject such resignation;
•our Board is not staggered, with each of our directors subject to re-election annually;
•our Board has determined that eight of our nine directors are independent for purposes of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) corporate governance listing standards and Rule 10A-3 under the Exchange Act;
•we have a lead independent director of the Board that convenes and chairs executive sessions of the independent directors to discuss certain matters without management or the chairman present;
•four of our directors qualify as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”);
•three of our directors (including our lead independent director) are women and one of our directors is a person of color constituting 33% and 11% respectively, of our Board in furtherance of our board diversity policy;
•a target retirement age of 75 has been established for our directors;
•we have an active stockholder outreach program, including providing stockholders the right to vote on an advisory basis on the fairness of the remuneration of executives;
•our Board members and named executive officers are required to maintain certain levels of stock ownership in our company ranging between three and six times their base salary or retainer, depending on position;
•we have a Clawback Policy that provides for the possible recoupment of performance or incentive-based compensation in the event of an accounting restatement due to material noncompliance by us with any financial reporting requirements under the securities laws (other than due to a change in applicable accounting methods, rules or interpretations);
•we have opted out of the control share acquisition statute in the Maryland General Corporations Law (the “MGCL”);
•stockholders have the ability to amend the Company’s bylaws by the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock of the Company pursuant to a binding proposal submitted by a stockholder;
•we have exempted from the business combinations statute in the MGCL transactions that are approved by our Board (including a majority of our directors who are not affiliates or associates of the acquiring person); and
•we do not have a stockholder rights plan (i.e., no poison pill).
In order to foster the highest standards of ethics and conduct in all business relationships, we have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics policy (the “Code of Conduct”). This policy covers a wide range of business practices and procedures and applies to our officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, and consultants. In addition, we have implemented whistleblowing procedures designed to facilitate the report of accounting and auditing matters as well as Code of Conduct matters (the “Whistleblower Policy”) that sets forth procedures by which any Covered Persons (as defined in the Whistleblower Policy) may report, on a confidential basis, concerns regarding, among other things, any questionable or unethical accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters with our Audit Committee as well as any potential Code of Conduct or ethics violations with our Nominating, Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee or our Chief Legal Officer.
We have adopted a Statement of Corporate Policy Regarding Equity Transactions that governs the process to be followed in the purchase or sale of our securities by any of our directors, officers, employees and consultants and prohibits any such persons from buying or selling our securities on the basis of material nonpublic information, and also prohibits our directors and officers from hedging equity securities of the Company, holding such securities in a margin account or pledging such securities as collateral for a loan. We review all of these policies on a periodic basis with our employees.
Our business is managed by our leadership team, subject to the supervision and oversight of our Board. Our directors stay informed about our business by attending meetings of our Board and its committees and through supplemental reports and communications.
OUR FOCUS ON TRANSPARENT ESG REPORTING
We believe in transparent reporting relating to ESG matters because we believe such reporting improves the understanding of our financial results. As discussed in the “Investment Strategy” section above, we quantify the environmental impact of every transaction we execute through the application of CarbonCount. Our 2021 CarbonCount and avoided emissions for investments originated in 2021 can be found in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Results of Operations — Environmental Metrics”.
We continue to implement the TCFD recommendations, and the recommended disclosures are located in this filing as follows;
•Governance - “Environmental and Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance”,
•Strategy - “Investment Strategy”
•Risk Management - “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Factors Impacting our Operating Results — Impact of climate of climate change on our future operations (Scenario Analysis)” and “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk — Risk Management”, and
•Metrics and Targets - “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Results of Operations - Environmental Metrics”.
In addition to the above environmental reporting initiatives, in 2020, we joined PCAF, a global financial industry-led partnership to implement a consistent and transparent disclosure framework to report carbon emissions and avoided emissions resulting from financed assets. We expect to implement our reporting in accordance with PCAF by 2023. We also disclose metrics related to our Human Capital Strategy. Refer to “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Results of Operations — Human Capital Metrics”. When issuing debt, including our CarbonCount Green Commercial Paper Notes, we generally provide the estimated carbon emission savings using CarbonCount, and in some instances are able to achieve better borrowing rates by achieving certain CarbonCount scores. Certain of our debt issuances have been evaluated to determine that they meet the environmental eligibility criteria for green bonds as defined by the International Capital Markets Association’s Green Bond Principles.
COMPETITION
We compete against a number of parties, including banks, private equity, hedge or infrastructure investment funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, institutional investors, investment banking firms, specialty finance companies, utilities, independent power producers, project developers, pension funds, governmental bodies, private credit platforms, and public entities established to own infrastructure assets and other entities.
We compete primarily on the basis of service, price, structure and flexibility as well as the breadth and depth of our expertise. We may at times compete and at other times partner or work as a participant with alternative financing sources. The continued low yields in alternative investment opportunities and increasing investor acceptance of the climate solutions market has increased the level of competition we experience. We may also encounter competition in the form of potential customers or our origination partners electing to use their own capital rather than engaging us as an outside capital provider. In addition, we may also face competition based on technological developments that reduce demand for electricity, increase power supplies through existing infrastructure or that otherwise compete with climate solutions projects in which we have invested. We believe that a significant part of our competitive advantage is our management team’s experience and industry expertise.
For additional information concerning these competitive risks, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—We operate in a competitive market and future competition may impact the terms of our investments.”
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND OTHER LEADERSHIP TEAM PERSONNEL
Our executive officers and other leadership team personnel and their biographies are as follows:
Jeffrey W. Eckel, 63, has served as our president, chief executive officer, and chairman of our Board since 2013 and was with the predecessor of our company as president and chief executive officer since 2000 and prior to that from 1985 to 1989 as a senior vice president. Mr. Eckel is on the board of trustees of The Nature Conservancy of Maryland and DC. Mr. Eckel was appointed by the governor of Maryland to the board of the Maryland Clean Energy Center in 2011 where Mr. Eckel served until 2016 while also serving as its chairman from 2012 to 2014. Mr. Eckel has over 35 years of experience in financing, owning and operating infrastructure and energy assets. Mr. Eckel received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in 1980 and a Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, in 1981. He holds Series 24, 63 and 79 securities licenses.
Jeffrey A. Lipson, 54, has served as an executive vice president and our chief operating officer since 2021 and as our chief financial officer since 2019. Previously, Mr. Lipson was president and chief executive officer and director of Congressional Bancshares and its subsidiary Congressional Bank (now Forbright Bank). Mr. Lipson has also been a senior vice president and the treasurer of CapitalSource Inc. and its subsidiary CapitalSource Bank and a senior vice president, Corporate Treasury, at Bank of America and its predecessor FleetBoston Financial. Mr. Lipson received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University in 1989 and a Masters in Business Administration in Finance from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business in 1993. Mr. Lipson serves on the board of directors of the Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington.
Susan D. Nickey, 61, has served as an executive vice president and our chief client officer since January 2021 and is responsible for leading business development and managing client relationships. Ms. Nickey previously served as a managing director from 2014 to 2021. Ms. Nickey currently serves as treasurer on the board of directors of the American Clean Power Association and is a member of the President’s Council at Ceres, a non-profit sustainability advocacy organization. Previously, she founded and served as CEO of Threshold Power. Ms. Nickey received a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame in 1983 and a Master’s of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1986.
Steven L. Chuslo, 64, has served as an executive vice president and our general counsel and secretary since 2013 and the chief legal officer since January 2021. Previously, Mr. Chuslo has served with the predecessor of our company as general counsel and secretary since 2008. Mr. Chuslo is responsible for governance support to the Board and management and oversees the company’s legal resources in the investment and portfolio management activities. Mr. Chuslo has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of securities, commercial and project finance, energy project development, and U.S. federal regulation. Mr. Chuslo received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and a Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Nathaniel J. Rose, CFA, 44, has served as executive vice president since 2015 and a co-chief investment officer beginning in 2021. Previously, Mr. Rose served as our chief operating officer from 2015 to 2017, our chief investment officer from 2013 to 2015 and 2017 to 2020 and has been with the Company and its predecessor since 2000. Mr. Rose has been involved with a vast majority of our transactions since 2000. Mr. Rose earned a joint Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond in 2000, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia in 2009, is a CFA charter holder and has passed the CPA examination. He holds a Series 63 and 79 securities licenses.
Daniel K. McMahon, CFA, 50, has served us as an executive vice president since 2015 and is the co-head of our portfolio management group and the head of our syndication group. He has been with the Company and its predecessor since 2000 in a variety of roles, including as a senior vice president from 2007 to 2015. He has played a role in analyzing, negotiating, structuring, and managing several billion dollars of transactions. Mr. McMahon received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego in 1993, and is a CFA charter holder. He holds Series 24, 63 and 79 securities licenses.
Marc T. Pangburn, CFA, 36, has served as an executive vice president and a co-chief investment officer since January 2021. Mr. Pangburn joined the Company in 2013 and previously served as a managing director until 2021, and is jointly responsible for the Company’s investing activities. Previously, Mr. Pangburn worked at MP2 Capital, a solar development and financing company, where he was responsible for structuring the firm’s transactions, and worked in the private capital group at New York Life Investments, focusing on utilities, energy and infrastructure debt and equity investments. Mr. Pangburn received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Drew University and is a CFA charter holder.
Richard R. Santoroski, 57, has served as executive vice president and co-head of portfolio management since October 2021, previously serving as chief analytics officer since January 2021 after joining the company in 2020 as a managing director. Mr. Santoroski is responsible for integrating analytics across portfolio, investment, and risk-related decisions. Previously, Mr. Santorski served as co-founder and managing partner of Wye Holdings from 2017 to 2020. From 2012 to 2016, he served as co-founder and managing director of American Capital Energy and Infrastructure (ACEI), an emerging markets investor in power generation projects across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Prior to ACEI, Mr. Santoroski served as executive vice president, chief risk officer, and head of corporate mergers, acquisitions & development of The AES Corporation. Prior to joining AES, he worked for several years at New York State Electric and Gas as an engineer and energy trader. Mr. Santoroski holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University as well as a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree from Syracuse University.
Katherine McGregor Dent, 49, has served as our senior vice president and chief human resources officer since April 2020, focusing on culture, strategy, and organizational development. Previously, Ms. Dent served as vice president, deputy general counsel, and assistant secretary from 2003 to 2020, where she played a key role in structuring, developing, negotiating, and closing several billions of dollars of transactions. Ms. Dent received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Niagara University in 1993 and a Juris Doctor from the University at Buffalo School of Law in 1996. Ms. Dent serves as the Chair of the board of trustees for St. Anne’s School of Annapolis.
Charles W. Melko, CPA, 41, has served as a senior vice president and our chief accounting officer since 2017 and as our treasurer since January 2021. He joined the Company in 2016 as a senior vice president and controller and has since been responsible for leading the company’s accounting and financial reporting function. In his treasurer role, he is involved in the company’s cash management and related capital markets activities. He is also responsible for leading the company’s ESG programs and continually driving best-practices in ESG disclosures. Previously, he served in a number of roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP since 2005, including as a Senior Manager in the National Professional Services Group where he focused on complex financial instruments accounting issues for energy clients. Mr. Melko received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy in 2002, a Master of Business Administration degree in 2005 and a Master of Science degree in Accountancy from Wheeling Jesuit University in 2005. He holds a CPA license in West Virginia and Maryland.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We maintain a website at www.hannonarmstrong.com. Information on our website is not incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K. We will make available, free of charge, on our website (a) our Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K (including any amendments thereto), proxy statements and other information (collectively, “Company Documents”) filed with, or furnished to, the SEC, as soon as reasonably practicable after such documents are so filed or furnished, (b) Corporate Governance Guidelines, (c) Director Independence Standards, (d) Code of Business Conduct and Ethics policy and (e) written charters of the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Nominating, Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee and Finance and Risk Committee of our Board. Company Documents filed with, or furnished to, the SEC are also available for review by the public at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. We provide copies of our Corporate Governance Guidelines and Code of Business Conduct and Ethics policy, free of charge, to stockholders who request such documents. Requests should be directed to Investor Relations, 1906 Towne Centre Blvd, Suite 370, Annapolis, Maryland 21401, (410) 571-9860.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our business and operations are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, the occurrence of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, consolidated results of operations and ability to make distributions to stockholders and could cause the value of our capital stock to decline. We may refer to the energy efficiency, renewable energy and the other
sustainable infrastructure projects or market collectively as climate solutions projects or the industry. Please also refer to the sections entitled “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factor Summary”.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
Our business depends in part on U.S. federal, state and local government policies, and a decline in the level of government support could harm our business.
The projects in which we invest typically depend in part on various U.S. federal, state or local governmental policies and incentives that support or enhance project economic feasibility. Such policies may include governmental initiatives, laws and regulations designed to reduce energy usage and impact the use of renewable energy or the investment in and the use of climate solutions.
U.S. federal policies and incentives include, for example, tax credits (including credits that have been recently reduced and scheduled to be eliminated or phased out in the future), tax deductions, bonus depreciation, federal grants and loan guarantees and energy market regulations. State and local governments policies and incentives include, for example, renewable portfolio standards (“RPS”), commercial property assessed clean energy (“C-PACE”) programs, feed-in tariffs, other tariffs, tax incentives and other cash and non-cash payments.
Governmental agencies, commercial entities and developers of climate solutions projects frequently depend on these policies and incentives to help defray the costs associated with, and to finance, various projects. Government regulations also impact the terms of third-party financing provided to support these projects, including through energy savings performance contracts. If any of these government policies, incentives or regulations are adversely amended, delayed, eliminated, reduced, retroactively changed or not extended beyond their current expiration dates, or there is a negative impact from the recent federal law changes or proposals, the operating results of the projects we finance and the demand for, and the returns available from, the investments we make may decline, which could harm our business.
U.S. federal, state and local government entities are major participants in, and regulators of, the energy industry, and their actions could be adverse to our project companies or our company.
The projects we invest in are subject to substantial regulation by U.S. federal, state and local governmental agencies. For example, many projects require government permits, licenses, concessions, leases or contracts. Government entities, due to the wide-ranging scope of their authority, have significant leverage in setting their contractual and regulatory relationships with third parties. In addition, government permits, licenses, concessions, leases and contracts are generally very complex, which may result in periods of non-compliance, or disputes over interpretation or enforceability. If the projects in which we invest fail to obtain or comply with applicable regulations, permits, or contractual obligations, they could be prevented from being constructed or subjected to monetary penalties or loss of operational rights, which could negatively impact project operating results and the returns on our assets. In addition, government counterparties also may have the discretion to change or increase regulation of project operations, or implement laws or regulations affecting project operations, separate from any contractual rights they may have. These actions could adversely impact the efficient and profitable operation of the projects in which we invest.
Contracts with government counterparties that support the projects in which we invest may be more favorable to the government counterparties compared to commercial contracts with private parties. For example, a lease, concession or general service contract may enable the government to modify or terminate the contract without requiring the payment of adequate compensation. Typically, our contracts with government counterparties contain termination provisions including prepayment amounts. In most cases, the prepayment amounts provide us with amounts sufficient to repay the financing we have provided but may be less than amounts that would be payable under “make whole” provisions customarily found in commercial lending arrangements.
Government entities may also suspend or debar contractors from doing business with the government or pursue various criminal or civil remedies under various government contract regulations. They may also issue new government contracts or fail to extend existing government contracts. Our ability to originate new assets could be adversely affected if one or more of the ESCOs or other origination sources with whom we have relationships are suspended or debarred or fail to win new, or renew existing, contracts.
A change in the fiscal health, level of appropriations or budgets of U.S. federal, state and local governments could reduce demand for our investments.
Although our energy efficiency investments do not normally require additional governmental appropriations to cover repayment due to the energy and operating savings derived from the newly installed equipment and systems, a significant decline in the fiscal health, level of appropriations or budgets of government customers may make it difficult for them to remain current on existing payment obligations or undesirable to enter into new energy efficiency improvement projects. Alternatively, some government entities may choose to provide appropriations or other credit support for climate solutions projects, which
would negatively impact the use of private capital such as ours. This could have a material and adverse effect on the return of and return on our investments for existing projects and on our ability to originate new assets. Moreover, other changes in resources available to governments may also impact their willingness to undertake energy efficiency projects. For example, an increase in money set aside for government expenditures for energy efficiency projects may reduce demand for our investments.
In addition, to the extent we make investments that involve direct appropriations, we will depend on approval of the necessary spending for the projects. The repayment of the investment, or the return on our asset, could be adversely affected if appropriations for any such projects are delayed or terminated.
If the cost of energy generated by traditional sources of energy continues to stay or further declines from present levels, demand for the projects in which we invest may decline.
Many traditional sources of energy such as coal, petroleum-based fuels and natural gas can be influenced by the price of underlying or substitute commodities. Such prices, which have decreased and may continue to decrease, may reduce the demand for energy efficiency projects or other projects, including renewable energy facilities, that do not rely on fossil fuel energy sources. For example, low natural gas prices may reduce the demand for projects like renewable energy that can substitute for natural gas, as well as adversely affect both the price available to renewable energy projects under future power sale agreements and the price of the electricity the projects sell on either a forward or a spot-market basis. Technological progress in electricity generation, storage or in the production of traditional fuels or the discovery of large new deposits of traditional fuels could reduce the cost of energy generated from those sources and consequently reduce the demand for the types of projects in which we invest, which could harm our new business origination prospects as well as the value of our existing Portfolio. In addition, volatility in commodity prices, including energy prices, may cause building owners and other parties to be reluctant to commit to projects for which repayment is based upon a fixed monetary value for energy savings that would not decline if the price of energy declines. Any resulting decline in demand for our investments or the price that industry participants receive for the sale of fossil fuel could adversely impact our operating results.
If the market for various types of climate solutions projects or the investment techniques related to such projects do not develop as we anticipate, new business generation in this target area may be adversely impacted.
The market for various types of climate solutions projects is emerging and rapidly evolving, leaving their future success uncertain. Similarly, various investing techniques, such as leasing land for renewable energy projects, purchasing interests in existing renewable energy projects, the use of C-PACE financing and the use of taxable debt for state and local energy efficiency or sustainable infrastructure financings are emerging and the future success of these investing techniques is also uncertain. If some or all market segments or investing techniques prove unsuitable for widespread commercial deployment or if demand for such projects or techniques fail to grow sufficiently, the demand for our capital may decline or develop more slowly than we anticipate. Many factors will influence the widespread adoption and demand for such projects and investing techniques, including general and local economic conditions, commodity prices of fossil fuel energy sources, the cost and availability of energy storage, the cost-effectiveness of various projects and techniques, performance and reliability of such technologies compared to conventional power sources and technologies, and the extent of government subsidies and regulatory developments. Any changes in the markets, products, technologies, financing techniques, or the regulatory environment could adversely impact the demand or financial performance for such projects and our investments.
Some projects in which we invest rely on net metering and related policies to improve project economics which if reduced could impact repayment of our investments or the return on our assets.
There has been a nationwide increase in distributed generation which has prompted discussions among policy makers and regulators regarding ways to both better integrate distributed energy resources into the electric grid and how to compensate distributed generators. Many states have a regulatory policy known as net energy metering, or net metering. Net metering typically allows some project customers to interconnect their on-site solar or other renewable energy systems to the utility grid and offset their utility electricity purchases by receiving a bill credit at the utility’s retail rate for the amount of energy in excess of their electric usage that is generated by their renewable energy system and is exported to the grid. At the end of the billing period, the customer simply pays for the net energy used or receives a credit at the retail rate if more energy is produced than consumed. Net metering policies are under review or have been limited or amended in a number of states. The ability and willingness of customers to pay for renewable energy systems which benefit from net metering rules may be reduced if net metering rules are eliminated or their benefits reduced, which may also impact our returns on such systems.
Existing electric utility industry regulations, and changes to regulations, may present technical, regulatory and economic barriers to the purchase and use of renewable energy and energy efficiency systems that may significantly reduce demand for systems and projects in which we invest or may adversely affect the profitability of such projects.
Federal, state and local government regulations and policies concerning the electric utility industry, and internal policies and regulations promulgated by electric utilities, heavily influence the market for electricity products and services. These regulations and policies often relate to electricity pricing and the interconnection of customer-owned electricity generation. In
the United States, governments and utilities continuously modify these regulations and policies. These regulations and policies could deter customers from purchasing energy efficiency and renewable energy systems. For example, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) recently conducted its own review of grid resiliency and the functioning of electricity markets and has made, and could continue to make, changes to policies and regulations related to the function of the electricity markets and grid resiliency which may negatively impact the use of renewable energy or encourage the use of fossil fuel energy over renewable energy. This could result in a significant reduction in the potential demand for such systems. Utilities commonly charge fees to larger, industrial customers for disconnecting from the electric grid or for having the capacity to use power from the electric grid for back-up purposes. In addition, there is an increasing trend towards initiating or increasing fixed fees for users to have electricity service from a utility. These fees could increase our customers’ cost to use energy efficiency and renewable energy systems not supplied by the utility and make them less desirable, thereby harming our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, any changes to government or internal utility regulations and policies that favor electric utilities could reduce competitiveness and cause a significant reduction in demand for systems in which we invest.
Further, certain climate solutions projects in which we invest may be “qualifying facilities” that are exempt from rate regulation as public utilities by FERC under the Federal Power Act, (the “FPA”). FERC regulations under the FPA confer upon these qualifying facilities key rights to interconnection with local utilities and can entitle such facilities to enter into PPAs with local utilities, from which the qualifying facilities benefit. Changes to these U.S. federal laws and regulations could increase the regulatory burdens and costs and could reduce the revenue of the project. In addition, modifications to the pricing policies of utilities could require climate solutions projects to achieve lower prices in order to compete with the price of electricity from the electric grid and may reduce the economic attractiveness of certain energy efficiency measures. To the extent that the projects in which we invest are subject to rate regulation, the project owners will be required to obtain FERC acceptance of their rate schedules for wholesale sales of energy, capacity and ancillary services. Any adverse changes in the rates project owners are permitted to charge could negatively impact the repayment of our investments, or the return on our assets.
In addition, the operation of, and electrical interconnection for, our climate solutions projects may be subject to U.S. federal, state or local interconnection and federal reliability standards, some of which are set forth in utility tariffs. These standards and tariffs specify rules, business practices and economic terms to which the projects in which we invest are subject and that may impact a project’s ability to deliver the electricity it produces or transports to its end customer. The tariffs are drafted by the utilities and approved by the utilities’ state and U.S. federal regulatory commissions. These standards and tariffs change frequently and it is possible that future changes will increase our administrative burden or adversely affect the terms and conditions under which the projects render services to their customers.
Under certain circumstances, we may also be subject to the reliability standards of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. If project owners fail to comply with the mandatory reliability standards, they could be subject to sanctions, including substantial monetary penalties, which could also raise credit risks for, or lower the returns available from, the project companies in which we invest.
These various regulations may also limit the transferability or sale of renewable energy projects and any such limits could negatively impact our returns from such projects.
We are subject to risks related to our ESG activities and disclosures.
Our ESG strategy and practices and the level of transparency with which we are approaching them are foundational to our business and expose us to several risks, including:
•that we may fail or be unable to fully achieve one or more of our ESG goals due to a range of factors within or beyond our control, or that we may adjust or modify our goals in light of new information, adjusted projections, or a change in business strategy, which could negatively impact our reputation and our business;
•that a failure to or perception of a failure to disclose metrics and set goals that are rigorous enough or in an acceptable format, a failure to appropriately manage selection of goals, a failure to or perception of a failure to make appropriate disclosures, stockholder perception of a failure to prioritize the “correct” ESG goals, or an unfavorable ESG-related rating by a third party, which could negatively impact our reputation and our business;
•that certain data we utilize in our CarbonCount or similar metric calculations is prepared by third parties or receives limited assurance from and/or verification by third parties and may undergo a less rigorous review process than assurance sought in connection with more traditional audits and such review process may not identify errors and may not protect us from potential liability under the securities laws, and, if errors are identified our reputation and our business could be negatively impacted and if we were to seek more extensive assurance or attestation with respect to such ESG metrics, we may be unable to obtain such assurance or attestation or may face increased costs related to obtaining and/or maintaining such assurance or attestation;
•that the ESG or sustainability standards, norms, or metrics, which are constantly evolving, change in a manner that impacts us negatively or requires us to change the content or manner of our disclosures, and our stockholders or third parties view such changes negatively, we are unable to adequately explain such changes, or we are required to expend significant resources to update our disclosures, any of which could negatively impact our reputation and our business; and
•that our business could be negatively impacted if any of our disclosures, including our CarbonCount or similar metrics, reporting to third-party ESG standards, or reporting against our goals, are inaccurate, perceived to be inaccurate, or alleged to be inaccurate.
We operate in a competitive market and future competition may impact the terms of our investments.
We compete against a number of parties who may provide alternatives to our investments including specialty finance companies, savings and loan associations, banks, private equity, hedge or infrastructure investment funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, institutional investors, investment banking firms, financial institutions, utilities, independent power producers, project developers, pension funds, government entities, public entities established to own infrastructure assets and other entities. The continued low interest rate environment and increasing investor acceptance of the climate solutions market have increased the level of competition we experience. We also encounter competition in the form of potential customers or our origination partners electing to use their own capital rather than engaging an outside provider such as us. In addition, we may also face competition based on technological developments that reduce demand for electricity, increase power supplies through existing infrastructure or that otherwise compete with our climate solutions projects. Some of our competitors are significantly larger than we are, have access to greater capital and other resources than we do and may have other advantages over us. In addition, some of our competitors may have higher risk tolerances or different risk assessments, which could allow them to consider a wider variety of investments and establish more relationships than we can. Further, many of our competitors are not subject to the operating constraints associated with REIT tax compliance or maintenance of an exemption from the 1940 Act. These characteristics could allow our competitors to consider a wider variety of opportunities, establish more relationships and offer better pricing and more flexible structuring than we can offer. We may lose business opportunities if we do not match our competitors’ pricing, terms and structure. If we match our competitors’ pricing, terms and structure, we may not be able to achieve acceptable risk-adjusted returns on our assets or we may be forced to bear greater risks of loss. The increase in the number or the size of our competitors in this market has resulted, and could continue to result, in less attractive terms on our investments or the need to accept a higher level of risks associated with our investments. As a result, competitive pressures we face could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business is affected by seasonal trends and construction cycles, and these trends and cycles could have an adverse effect on our operating results.
The volume and timing of our originations are subject to seasonal fluctuations and construction cycles, particularly in climates that experience colder weather during the winter months or at educational institutions, where large projects are typically carried out during summer months when their facilities are unoccupied. In addition, government customers, many of which have fiscal years that do not coincide with ours, typically follow annual procurement cycles. Further, government contracting cycles can be affected by the timing of, and delays in, the legislative process related to government programs, funding, or incentives that help drive demand for climate solutions projects. As a result of such fluctuations, we may occasionally experience fluctuations in the timing of new asset opportunities or declines in revenue or earnings as compared to the immediately preceding quarter, and comparisons of our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful.
Risks Related to Our Assets and Projects in Which We Invest
Changes in interest rates could adversely affect the value of our assets and negatively affect our profitability.
Interest rates are highly sensitive to many factors, including governmental monetary and tax policies, domestic and international economic and political considerations and other factors beyond our control. Many of our assets pay a fixed rate of interest or provide a fixed preferential return.
With respect to our business operations, increases in interest rates, in general, may over time cause: (1) project owners to be less interested in borrowing or raising equity and thus reduce the demand for our investments; (2) the interest expense associated with our borrowings to increase; (3) the market value of our fixed rate or fixed return assets to decline; and (4) the market value of our interest rate swap agreements to increase. Decreases in interest rates, in general, may over time cause: (1) project owners to be more interested in borrowing or raising equity thus increase the demand for our assets; (2) prepayments on our assets, to the extent allowed, to increase; (3) the interest expense associated with our borrowings to decrease; (4) the market value of our fixed rate or fixed return assets to increase; and (5) the market value of our interest rate swap agreements to decrease. Adverse developments resulting from changes in interest rates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The lack of liquidity of our assets may adversely affect our business, including our ability to value our assets.
Volatile market conditions could significantly and negatively impact the liquidity of our assets. Illiquid assets typically experience greater price volatility, as a ready market does not exist, and can be more difficult to value. In addition, validating third-party pricing for illiquid assets may be more subjective than more liquid assets. The illiquidity of our assets may make it difficult for us to sell such assets if the need or desire arises. In addition, if we are required to liquidate all or a portion of our Portfolio quickly, we may realize significantly less than the value at which we have previously recorded our assets. To the extent that we utilize leverage to finance our investments that are or become illiquid, the negative impact on us related to trying to sell assets in a short period of time for cash could be greatly exacerbated. As a result, our ability to vary our Portfolio in response to changes in economic and other conditions may be relatively limited, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Some of the assets in our Portfolio may be recorded at fair value and, as a result, there could be uncertainty as to the value of these assets. Further, we may experience a decline in the fair value of our assets.
Our investments are not publicly traded. The fair value of assets that are not publicly traded may not be readily determinable. In accordance with GAAP, we record certain of our assets at fair value, which may include unobservable inputs. Because such valuations are subjective, the fair value of these assets may fluctuate over short periods of time and our determinations of fair value may differ materially from the values that would have been used if a ready market for these assets existed. The value of our common stock could be adversely affected if our determinations regarding the fair value of these assets were materially higher than the values that we ultimately realize upon their disposal. Additionally, our results of operations for a given period could be adversely affected if our determinations regarding the fair value of these assets were materially higher than the values that we ultimately realize upon their disposal. The valuation process can be particularly challenging during periods when market events make valuations of certain assets more difficult, unpredictable and volatile.
A decline in the fair market value of any asset we carry at fair value, may require us to reduce the value of such assets under GAAP. In addition, our other financial assets are subject to an impairment assessment that could result in adjustments to their carrying values. Upon the subsequent disposition or sale of such assets, we could incur future losses or gains based on the difference between the sale price received and adjusted value of such assets as reflected on our balance sheet at the time of sale.
The preparation of our financial statements, including provision for loan losses, involves use of estimates, judgments and assumptions, and our financial statements may be materially affected if our estimates prove to be incorrect.
Financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP require the use of estimates, judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amounts. Different estimates, judgments and assumptions reasonably could be used that would have a material effect on the financial statements, and changes in these estimates, judgments and assumptions are likely to occur from period to period in the future. Significant areas of accounting requiring the application of management’s judgment include but are not limited to determining the fair value of our assets.
These estimates, judgments and assumptions are inherently uncertain, and, if they prove to be wrong, then we face the risk that charges to income will be required. Any charges could significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities. See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates for a discussion of the accounting estimates, judgments and assumptions that we believe are the most critical to an understanding of our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Further, our provision for loan losses is evaluated on a quarterly basis. The determination of our provision for loan losses requires us to make certain estimates and judgments, which may be difficult to determine. Our estimates and judgments are based on a number of factors and may not be correct. If our estimates or judgments are incorrect, our results of operations and financial condition could be severely impacted. See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates for a discussion of the accounting estimates, judgments and assumptions that we believe are the most critical to our provision of loan losses.
We rely on our project sponsors for financial reporting related to our project companies, and our financial statements may be materially affected if the financial reporting related to our project companies proves to be incorrect.
We have equity investments in climate solutions project companies which we account for under the equity method of accounting, which requires us to rely on the project sponsor for the reporting of the financial results of those project companies, including in some instances the allocation of earnings under the hypothetical liquidation at book value (“HLBV”) method. The HLBV method involves complex judgments around the interpretation of legal provisions governing liquidation of the entity in which we are invested. To the extent the reporting inclusive of these HLBV allocations we are provided is incorrect, our financial results reported using that information may be incorrect.
The majority of our investments are not rated by a rating agency, which may result in an amount of risk, volatility or potential loss of principal that is greater than that of alternative asset opportunities.
The majority of our investments are not rated by any rating agency and we expect that most of the assets we originate and acquire in the future will not be rated by any rating agency. Although we focus on climate solutions project companies with high credit quality obligors, we believe that some of the projects or obligors in which we invest, if rated, would be rated below investment grade, due to speculative characteristics of the project or the obligor’s capacity to pay interest and repay principal or pay dividends. Some of our assets may result in an amount of risk, volatility or potential loss of principal that is greater than that of alternative asset opportunities.
Any credit ratings assigned to our assets, debt or obligors are subject to ongoing evaluations and revisions and we cannot assure you that those ratings will not be downgraded.
To the extent our assets, their underlying obligors, or our debt are rated by credit rating agencies or by our internal rating process, such assets, obligors or our debt will be subject to ongoing evaluation by credit rating agencies and our internal rating process, and we cannot assure you that any ratings will not be changed or withdrawn in the future. If rating agencies assign a lower-than-expected rating or if a rating is further reduced or withdrawn by a rating agency or us, or if there are indications of a potential reduction or withdrawal of the ratings of our assets, the underlying obligors or our debt in the future, the value of these assets could significantly decline, the level of borrowings based on such asset could be reduced or we could incur higher borrowing costs or incur losses upon disposition or the failure of obligors to satisfy their obligations to us.
Our investments are subject to delinquency, foreclosure and loss, any or all of which could result in losses to us.
Our investments are subject to risks of delinquency, foreclosure and loss. In many cases, the ability of a borrower to return our invested capital and our expected return is dependent primarily upon the successful development, construction and operation of the underlying project. If the cash flow of the project is reduced, the borrower’s ability to return our capital and our expected return may be impaired. We make certain estimates regarding project cash flows or savings during the underwriting of our investment. These estimates may not prove accurate, as actual results may vary from estimates. The cash flows or cost savings of a project can be affected by, among other things: the terms of the power purchase or other use agreements used in such project; the creditworthiness of the off-taker or project user; price of power or services now and in the future; the technology deployed; unanticipated expenses in the development or operation of the project and changes in national, regional, state or local economic conditions, laws and regulations; and acts of God, terrorism, social unrest and civil disturbances.
In the event of any default or shortfall of an investment, we will bear a risk of loss of principal or equity to the extent of any deficiency between the value of the collateral, if any, and the amount of our investment, which could have a material adverse effect on our cash flow from operations and may impact the cash available for distribution to our stockholders. Many of the projects are structured as special purpose limited liability companies which limits our ability to realize any recovery to the collateral or value of the project itself. In the event of the bankruptcy of a project owner, obligor, or other borrower, our investment or the project will be deemed to be subject to the avoidance powers of the bankruptcy trustee or debtor-in-possession and our or the project’s contractual rights may be unenforceable under federal bankruptcy or state law. Foreclosure proceedings against a project can be an expensive and lengthy process, which could have a substantial negative effect on our anticipated return on the foreclosed investment.
Our climate solutions project companies may incur liabilities that rank equally with, or senior to, our investments in such projects.
We provide a range of investment structures, including various types of debt and equity securities, senior and subordinated loans, real property leases, mezzanine debt, preferred equity and common equity. Our projects may have, or may be permitted to incur, other liabilities or equity preferences that rank equally with, or senior to, our positions or investments in such projects or businesses, as the case may be, including with respect to grants of collateral. By their terms, such instruments may entitle the holders to receive payment of interest, principal payments or other distributions on or before the dates on which we are entitled to receive payments with respect to the instruments in which we invest. Also, in the event of insolvency, liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or bankruptcy of an entity in which we have invested, holders of instruments ranking senior to our investment in that project or business would typically be entitled to receive payment in full before we receive any distribution. After repaying such senior stakeholders, such project may not have any remaining assets to use for repaying its obligation to us. In the case of securities ranking equally with instruments we hold, we would have to share on an equal basis any distributions with other stakeholders holding such instruments in the event of an insolvency, liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or bankruptcy of the relevant project.
Our subordinated and mezzanine debt and equity investments, many of which are illiquid with no readily available market, involve a substantial degree of risk.
Subordinated and mezzanine debt and equity investments involve a number of significant risks, including:
•such investments could be subject to further dilution as a result of the issuance of additional debt or equity interests and to additional risks because subordinated and mezzanine debt are subordinate to other indebtedness and in some cases, project tax equity, and equity interests are subordinate to all indebtedness (including trade creditors) and any senior securities in the event that the issuer is unable to meet its obligations or becomes subject to a bankruptcy process;
•to the extent that a project company in which we invest requires additional capital and is unable to obtain it, we may not recover our investment; and
•in some cases, subordinated and mezzanine debt may not pay current interest or principal or equity investments may not pay current dividends, and our ability to realize a return on our investment, as well as to recover our investment, will be dependent on the success of the project company in which we invest. The project may face unanticipated costs or delays or may not generate projected cash flows which could lead to the project generating lower than expected rates of return.
We generally do not control the projects in which we invest.
Although the covenants in our financing or investment documentation generally restrict certain actions that may be taken by project owners, we generally do not control the projects in which we invest. As a result, we are subject to the risk that the project owner may make certain business decisions or take risks with which we disagree or otherwise act in ways that do not serve our interests.
We invest in joint ventures and other similar arrangements that subject us to additional risks.
Some of our project companies are structured as joint ventures, partnerships, securitizations, syndications and consortium arrangements. Part of our strategy is to participate with other institutional investors or the project’s sponsor on various climate solutions transactions. These arrangements are driven by the magnitude of capital required to complete acquisitions and the development of climate solutions projects and other industry-wide trends that we believe will continue. Such arrangements involve risks not present where a third party is not involved, including the possibility that partners or co-venturers might become bankrupt or otherwise fail to fund their share of required capital contributions. Additionally, partners or co-venturers might at any time have economic or other business interests or goals different from ours. These investments generally provide for a reduced level of control over an acquired project because governance rights are shared with others. Accordingly, project decisions relating to the management, operation and the timing and nature of any exit, are often made by a majority vote of the investors or by separate agreements that are reached with respect to individual decisions. In addition, project operations may be subject to the risk that the project owners may make business, financial or management choices with which we do not agree or the management of the project may take risks or otherwise act in a manner that does not serve our interests. Because we may not have the ability to exercise control, we may not be able to realize some or all of the benefits expected from our investment. If any of the foregoing were to occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer as a result.
In addition, some of our joint ventures, partnerships, and equity investments, subject the sale or transfer of our interests in these project companies to rights of first refusal or first offer, tag along or drag along rights and buy-sell, call-put or other restrictions. Such rights may be triggered at a time when we may not want them to be exercised and such rights may inhibit our ability to sell our interest in an entity within our desired time frame or on any other desired terms.
Many of our assets depend on revenues from third-party contractual arrangements.
Many of the projects in which we invest rely on revenue or repayment from contractual commitments of end-customers, including federal, state, or local governments for energy efficiency projects or utilities or other customers under PPAs. There is a risk that these customers may default under their contracts. In addition, many of these end-customers are large entities with wide ranging activities. An event in a non-related part of the business could have a material adverse impact on the financial strength of such end-customer, such as the effect of recent wildfires on the California utilities. Furthermore, the bankruptcy, insolvency, or other liquidity constraints of one or more customers may result in a renegotiation or rejection of the third-party contract, delay the receipt of any obligations or reduce the likelihood of collecting defaulted obligations. Some projects rely on one customer for their revenue and thus the project could be materially and adversely affected by any material change in the financial condition of that customer. While there may be alternative customers for such a project, there can be no assurance that a new contract on the same terms will be able to be negotiated for the project.
Certain of our projects with contractually committed revenues or other sources of repayment under long term contracts will be subject to re-contracting risk in the future. We cannot provide assurance that these contracts can be re-negotiated once their terms expire on equally favorable terms or at all. If it is not possible to renegotiate these contracts on favorable terms, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Revenues at some of the projects in which we invest depend on reliable and efficient metering, or other revenue collection systems, which are often specified in the contract. If one or more of such projects are not able to operate and maintain
the metering or other revenue collection systems in the manner expected, if the operation and maintenance costs, are greater than expected, or if the customer disputes the output of the revenue collection system, the ability of the project to repay our investments or provide a return to us on our asset could be materially and adversely affected.
We are exposed to the credit risk of ESCOs, various project sponsors, and others.
We are subject to varying degrees of credit risk related to ESCOs in government energy efficiency projects in which guarantees provided by ESCOs under energy savings performance contracts are required in the event that certain energy savings are not realized by the customer. We are also exposed to credit risk in projects in which we invest that do not depend on funding from governments.
Where we make loans to or own equity interests in special purposes entities such as those that lease solar energy systems to residential customers, those special purpose entities often enter into various contractual arrangements with, or receive performance guarantees from the affiliate project sponsor to ensure satisfactory equipment or other project performance over the term of the lease or power purchase agreement. To the extent those parties are unable to perform on their contractual obligations or performance guarantees we may see diminished equity returns or the special purpose entity may be unable to repay their loan timely or at all.
We seek to mitigate these credit risks by employing a comprehensive review and asset selection process and careful ongoing monitoring of acquired assets. Nevertheless, unanticipated credit losses could occur which could adversely impact our operating results. During periods of economic downturn in the global economy, the solvency and financial wherewithal of counterparties with whom we do business could be impacted and our exposure to credit risks from obligors increases, and our efforts to monitor and mitigate the associated risks may not be effective in reducing our credit risks. In the event a counterparty to us or one of our climate solutions projects becomes insolvent or unable to make payments, we may fail to recover the full value of our investment or realize the value from the counterparty’s contract, thus reducing our earnings and liquidity. In addition, the insolvency of one or more of our, or one of our climate solutions projects’, counterparties could reduce the amount of financing available to us, which would make it more difficult for us to leverage the value of our assets and obtain substitute financing on attractive terms or at all. A material reduction in our financing sources or an adverse change in the terms of our financings could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Certain participants in the sustainable energy industry have experienced significant declines in the value of their equity and difficulty in raising or refinancing debt, which increases the credit risk to these companies and there can be no assurance they will be able to fulfill their obligations which could adversely impact our operating results.
Some of the projects in which we invest have sold their output under PPAs that expose the projects to various risks.
Some of our projects enter into PPAs when they contract to sell all or a fixed proportion of the electricity generated by the project, sometimes bundled with renewable energy credits and capacity or other environmental attributes, to a power purchaser, often a utility, or increasingly, a corporation. PPAs are used to stabilize our revenues from that project. We are exposed to the risk that the power purchaser, who we consider an obligor, will fail to perform under a PPA or the PPA will be terminated or expire, which will lead to that project needing to sell its electricity at the then market price, which could be substantially lower than the price provided in the applicable PPA. In most instances, the project also commits to sell minimum levels of generation. If the project generates less than the committed volumes, it may be required to buy the shortfall of electricity on the open market or make payments of liquidated damages or be in default under a PPA, which could result in its termination. In the event that any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could suffer as a result.
Portions of the electricity and environmental attributes our assets generate are sold on the open market at spot-market prices. A prolonged environment of low prices for natural gas, or other conventional fuel sources such as we are experiencing may, and could continue to, have a material adverse effect on our long-term business prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Low prices for traditional fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, could cause demand for renewable energy to decrease and prices have, and may continue to, adversely affect both the future sale price of energy under new PPAs and the current sale price of energy sold on a spot-market basis. Low PPA and spot market power prices, if combined with other factors, can have a material adverse effect on our projects and their respective values and our expected returns, results of operations and cash available for distribution.
Some of the projects we invest in, or may plan to invest in, sell environmental attributes such as renewable energy credits or other similar credits on an uncontracted basis. To the extent merchant prices for these attributes are lower than expected, our projects revenues could be adversely impacts, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could suffer as a result.
The ability of our assets to generate revenue from certain projects depends on having interconnection arrangements and services.
The future success of our assets will depend, in part, on their ability to maintain satisfactory interconnection agreements. If the interconnection or transmission agreement of a project is terminated for any reason, they may not be able to replace it with an interconnection and transmission arrangement on terms as favorable as the existing arrangement, or at all, or they may experience significant delays or costs in connection with securing a replacement. If a network to which one or more of the projects is connected experiences equipment or operational problems or other forms of “down time,” the affected project may lose revenue and be exposed to non-performance penalties and claims from its customers. These may include claims for damages incurred by customers, such as the additional cost of acquiring alternative electricity supply at then-current spot market rates. The owners of the network will not usually compensate electricity generators for lost income due to down time. In addition, our projects may be exposed to a locational basis risk resulting from a difference between where the power is generated and the contracted delivery point. These factors could materially affect these projects, which could negatively affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flow.
Our projects and their obligors are exposed to an increase in climate change or other change in meteorological conditions which could have an impact on electric generation, revenue, insurance costs or the ability of the projects or their obligors to honor their contract obligations, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and cash flows.
The electricity produced and revenues generated by a renewable electric generation facility are highly dependent on suitable weather conditions, which are beyond our control. Components of renewable energy systems, such as turbines, solar panels and inverters, could be damaged by natural disasters or severe weather, including extreme temperatures, wildfires, hurricanes, hailstorms or tornadoes. Furthermore, the potential physical impacts of climate change may impact our projects, including the result of changes in weather patterns (including floods, tsunamis, drought, and rainfall levels), wind speeds, water availability, storm patterns and intensities, and temperature levels. The projects in which we invest will be obligated to bear the expense of repairing the damaged renewable energy systems and replacing spare parts for key components and insurance may not cover the costs or the lost revenue. Natural disasters or unfavorable weather and atmospheric conditions, such as extreme cold temperatures impacting Texas in February 2021, could impair the effectiveness of the renewable energy assets, reduce their output beneath their rated capacity, require shutdown of key equipment or impede operation of the renewable energy assets, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and cash flows. Sustained unfavorable weather could also unexpectedly delay the installation of renewable energy systems, which could result in a delay in our investing in new projects or increase the cost of such projects. The resulting effects of climate change can also have an impact on the cost of, and the ability of a project to obtain, adequate insurance coverage to protect against related losses.
We typically base our investment decisions with respect to each renewable energy facility on the findings of studies conducted on-site prior to construction or based on historical conditions at existing facilities. However, actual climatic conditions at a facility site may not conform to the findings of these studies. Even if an operating project’s historical renewable energy resources are consistent with the long-term estimates, the unpredictable nature of weather conditions often results in daily, monthly and yearly material deviations from the average renewable resources anticipated during a particular period. Therefore, renewable energy facilities in which we invest may not meet anticipated production levels or the rated capacity of the generation assets, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and cash flows.
In addition, many of the project’s end-customers are large entities with wide ranging activities. A climate related event in a non-related part of the business could have a material adverse impact on the financial strength of such end-customer and their ability to honor their contractual obligations which could negatively impact on revenue and the cash flow of the project and our business.
Operation of the projects in which we invest involves significant risks and hazards that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Climate projects are subject to various construction and operating delays and risks that have in the past caused them to, and may in the future cause them to, incur higher than expected costs or generate less than expected amounts of savings or outputs, such as electricity in the case of a renewable energy project.
The ongoing operation of the projects in which we invest involves risks that include construction delays, the breakdown or failure of equipment or processes or performance below expected levels of output or efficiency due to wear and tear, latent defect, design error or operator error or force majeure events, among other things. In addition to natural risks such as earthquake, flood, drought, lightning, wildfire, hurricane, ice, wind, and temperature extremes, other hazards, such as fire, explosion, structural collapse and machinery failure, acts of terrorism or related acts of war, hostile cyber intrusions, pandemics, or other catastrophic events are inherent risks in the construction and operation of a project. These and other hazards can cause significant personal injury or loss of life, severe damage to and destruction of property, plant and equipment and contamination of, or damage to, the environment and suspension of operations. Operation of a project also involves risks that the operator will be unable to transport its product to its customers in an efficient manner due to a lack of transmission capacity. Unplanned outages of projects, including extensions of scheduled outages due to mechanical failures or other problems, occur from time to
time and are an inherent risk of the business. Unplanned outages typically increase operation and maintenance expenses and may reduce revenues as a result of selling less electricity or require the project to incur significant costs as a result of obtaining replacement power from third parties in the open market to satisfy forward power sales obligations. Any extended interruption in a project’s construction or operation, a project’s inability to operate its assets efficiently, manage capital expenditures and costs and generate earnings and cash flow could have a material adverse effect on the repayment of and return on our investment and our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. While the projects maintain insurance, obtain warranties from vendors and obligate contractors to meet certain performance levels, the proceeds of such insurance, warranties or performance guarantees may not cover the lost revenues, increased expenses or liquidated damages payments should the project experience any equipment breakdowns, insurance claims or non-performance by contractors or vendors.
Some of the projects in which we invest may require substantial operating or capital expenditures in the future.
Many of the projects in which we invest are capital intensive and require substantial ongoing expenditures for, among other things, additions and improvements, and maintenance and repair of plant and equipment related to project operations. In addition, there may be cash needs to settle certain contractual obligations of the projects, such as settlements or margining requirements related to hedging activities. While we do not typically bear the responsibility for these expenditures, any failure by the equity owner to make necessary operating or capital expenditures could adversely impact project performance. In addition, some of these expenditures may not be recoverable from current or future contractual arrangements.
The use of real property rights that we acquire or are used for our climate solutions projects may be adversely affected by the rights of lienholders and leaseholders that are superior to those of the grantors of those real property rights to us.
The projects in which we invest often require large areas of land for construction and operation or other easements or access to the underlying land. In addition, we may acquire rights to land or other real property. Although we believe that we, or our projects in which we invest, have valid rights to all material easements, licenses and rights of way, not all of such easements, licenses and rights of way are registered against the lands to which they relate and may not bind subsequent owners. Some of our real property rights and projects generally are, and are likely to continue to be, located on land occupied pursuant to long-term easements and leases. The ownership interests in the land subject to these easements and leases may be subject to mortgages securing loans or other liens (such as tax liens) and other easement and lease rights of third parties (such as leases of water, oil or mineral rights) that were created prior to, or are superior to, our or our projects’ easements and leases. As a result, our rights may be subject, and subordinate, to the rights of those third parties. We typically obtain representations or perform title searches or obtain title insurance to protect our real property interest and our investments in our projects against these risks. Such measures may, however, be inadequate to protect against all risk of loss of rights to use the land rights we have acquired or the land on which these projects are located, which could have a material and adverse effect on our land rights, our projects and their financial condition and operating results.
We own land or leasehold interests that are used by renewable energy projects. Negative market conditions or adverse events affecting tenants, or the industries in which they operate, could have an adverse impact on our underwritten returns. Moreover, many of our real estate assets are concentrated in similar geographic locations, which subjects us to an increased risk of significant loss if any property declines in value, incurs a natural disaster or if we are unable to lease a property.
We own land or leasehold interests used by renewable energy projects that are concentrated in a limited number of geographic locations. One consequence of this is that the aggregate returns we realize may be substantially adversely affected by the unfavorable performance of a small number of leases, a significant decline in the market value of any single property or a natural disaster in a concentrated area. Our cash flow depends in part on the ability to lease the real estate to projects or other tenants on economically favorable terms. We could be adversely affected by various facts and events over which we have limited or no control, such as:
•lack of demand in areas where our properties are located;
•inability to retain existing tenants and attract new tenants;
•oversupply of space and changes in market rental rates;
•our tenants’ creditworthiness and ability to pay rent, which may be affected by their operations, the current economic situation and competition within their industries from other operators;
•defaults by and bankruptcies of tenants, failure of tenants to pay rent on a timely basis, or failure of tenants to comply with their contractual obligations;
•economic or physical decline of the areas where the properties are located; and
•destruction from natural disasters.
At any time, any tenant may experience a downturn in its business, including increased operating costs, termination of a PPA or low spot-market prices of products, that may weaken its operating results or overall financial condition, a tenant may delay lease commencement, fail to make rental payments when due, decline to extend a lease upon its expiration, become insolvent or declare bankruptcy. Any tenant bankruptcy or insolvency, leasing delay or failure to make rental payments when due could result in the termination of the tenant’s lease and material losses to us.
If a tenant elects to terminate its lease prior to or upon its expiration or does not renew its lease as it expires, we may not be able to rent or sell the properties or realize our expected value. Furthermore, leases that are renewed and some new leases for properties that are re-leased, may have terms that are less economically favorable than expiring lease terms, or may require us to incur significant costs, such as lease transaction costs. In addition, negative market conditions or adverse events affecting tenants, or the industries in which they operate, may force us to sell vacant properties for less than their carrying value, which could result in impairments. Any of these events could adversely affect the value of our asset, the cash flow from operations and our ability to make distributions to stockholders and service indebtedness. A significant portion of the costs of owning property, such as real estate taxes, insurance and maintenance, are not necessarily reduced when circumstances cause a decrease in rental revenue from the properties. In a weakened financial condition, tenants may not be able to pay these costs of ownership and we may be unable to recover these operating expenses from them.
Further, the occurrence of a tenant bankruptcy or insolvency could diminish the income we receive from the tenant’s lease or leases. For instance, a bankruptcy court might authorize the tenant to terminate its leases with us. If that happens, our claim against the bankrupt tenant for unpaid future rent would be subject to statutory limitations that most likely would be substantially less than the remaining rent we are owed under the leases. In addition, any claim we have for unpaid past rent, if any, may not be paid in full. As a result, tenant bankruptcies may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
In addition, since renewable energy projects are often concentrated in certain states, we would also be subject to any adverse change in the political or regulatory climate in those states or specific counties where such properties are located that could adversely affect our properties and our ability to lease such properties.
Performance of projects where we invest may be harmed by future labor disruptions and economically unfavorable collective bargaining agreements.
A number of the projects where we invest could have workforces that are unionized or that in the future may become unionized and, as a result, are required to negotiate the wages, benefits and other terms with many of their employees collectively. If these projects were unable to negotiate acceptable contracts with any of their unions as existing agreements expire, they could experience a significant disruption of their operations, higher ongoing labor costs and restrictions on their ability to maximize the efficiency of their operations, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, in some jurisdictions where our projects have operations, labor forces have a legal right to strike which may have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations, either directly or indirectly, for example if a critical upstream or downstream counterparty was itself subject to a labor disruption which impacted the ability of our projects to operate.
We invest in projects that rely on third parties to manufacture quality products or provide reliable services in a timely manner and the failure of these third parties could cause project performance to be adversely affected.
We invest in projects that typically rely on third parties to select, manage or provide equipment or services. Third parties may be responsible for choosing vendors, including equipment suppliers and subcontractors. Project success often depends on third parties who are capable of installing and managing projects and structuring contracts that provide appropriate protection against construction and operational risks. In many cases, in addition to contractual protections and remedies, project owners may seek guaranties, warranties and construction bonding to provide additional protection.
The warranties provided by the third parties and, in some cases, their subcontractors, typically limit any direct harm that results from relying on their products and services. However, there can be no assurance that a supplier or subcontractor will be willing or able to fulfill its contractual obligations and make necessary repairs or replace equipment. In addition, these warranties generally expire within one to five years or may be of limited scope or provide limited remedies. If projects are unable to avail themselves of warranty protection or receive the expected protection under the terms of the guaranties or bonding, we may need to incur additional costs, including replacement and installation costs, which could adversely impact our investment.
In addition, renewable energy projects rely on electric and other types of transmission lines and facilities owned and operated by third parties to receive and distribute their energy. Any substantial access barriers to these lines and facilities could adversely impact the demand or financial performance for such projects and our investments.
Liability relating to environmental matters may impact the value of properties that we may acquire or the properties underlying our assets.
Under various U.S. federal, state and local laws, an owner or operator of real estate or a project may become liable for the costs of removal of certain hazardous substances released from the project or any underlying real property. These laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner or operator knew of, or was responsible for, the release of such hazardous substances.
The presence of hazardous substances may adversely affect our, or another owner’s, ability to sell a contaminated project or borrow using the project as collateral. To the extent that we, or another project owner, become liable for removal costs, our investment, or the ability of the owner to make payments to us, may be negatively impacted.
We acquire real property rights, make investments in projects that own real property, have collateral consisting of real property and in the course of our business, we may take title to a project or its underlying real estate assets relating to one of our debt financings. In these cases, we could be subject to environmental liabilities with respect to these assets. To the extent that we become liable for the removal costs, our results of operation and financial condition may be adversely affected. The presence of hazardous substances, if any, may adversely affect our ability to sell the affected real property or the project and we may incur substantial remediation costs, thus harming our financial condition.
Our insurance and contractual protections may not always cover lost revenue, increased expenses or liquidated damages payments.
Although our assets or projects generally have insurance, supplier warranties, subcontractors performance assurances such as bonding and other risk mitigation measures, the proceeds of such insurance, warranties, bonding or other measures may not be adequate to cover lost revenue, increased expenses or liquidated damages payments that may be required in the future.
The repayment of certain of our assets is dependent upon collection of payments from residential customers and we may be indirectly subject to consumer protection laws and regulations.
Certain obligors to which we have credit exposure are, or may be, subject to consumer protection laws, such as federal truth-in-lending, consumer leasing, and equal credit opportunity laws and regulations, as well as state and local sales and finance laws and regulations. Claims arising out of actual or alleged violations of law may be asserted against those obligors by individuals or governmental entities and may exposure them to significant damages or other penalties, including fines, or could reduce the likelihood the residential customer may pay their obligation, which could limit their ability to repay borrowings or make equity distributions to us.
Risks Related to Our Company
We may change our operational policies (including our investment guidelines and strategies) with the approval of our Board but without stockholder consent at any time, which may adversely affect the market value of our common stock and our ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
Our board of directors determines our operational policies and may amend or revise our policies, including our policies with respect to acquisitions, dispositions, growth, operations, compensation, indebtedness, capitalization and dividends, or approve transactions that deviate from these policies, without a vote of, or notice to, our stockholders at any time. We may change our investment guidelines, underwriting process and our strategy at any time with the approval of our Board, but without the consent of our stockholders, which could result in originating assets that are different in type from, and possibly riskier than, the assets initially contemplated. In addition, our charter provides that our Board may authorize us to revoke or otherwise terminate our REIT election, without the approval of our stockholders, if it determines that it is no longer in our best interests to qualify as a REIT. These changes could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and our ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
Our management and employees depend on information systems and system failures could significantly disrupt our business, which may, in turn, negatively affect the market price of our common stock and our ability to make distributions to our stockholders.
Our underwriting process and our asset and financial management and reporting are dependent on our present and future communications and information systems. Any failure or interruption of these systems could cause delays or other problems in our originating, financing, investing, asset and financial management and reporting activities, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.
We contract with information technology service providers where, in part, we rely upon their systems and controls for the quality of the data provided. The inappropriate establishment and maintenance of these systems and controls could cause information that we use to operate our business to be unavailable or inaccurate and could negatively impact our financial results.
Our information technology architecture is partially outsourced. These systems and processes may be either internet based or through traditional outsourced functions and certain of these arrangements are new or emerging. When we contract with these service providers we attempt to evaluate the quality of their systems and controls before we execute the arrangement and may rely on third party reviews and audits of these service providers and attempt to implement certain processes to ensure the quality of the data received from these service providers. Because of the nature and maturity of the technology such efforts may be unsuccessful or incomplete and the unavailability of these systems or the inaccurate data provided from these service providers could negatively impact our financial results.
Cybersecurity risks and cyber incidents may adversely affect our business by causing a disruption to our operations, a compromise or corruption of our confidential information, a misappropriation of funds, and/or damage to our business relationships, all of which could negatively impact our financial results.
A cyber incident is considered to be any adverse event that threatens the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our information resources. These incidents may be an intentional attack or an unintentional event and could involve gaining unauthorized access to our information systems for purposes of misappropriating assets, stealing confidential information, corrupting data or causing operational disruption. The risk of a security breach or disruption, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusions, including by computer hackers, nation-state affiliated actors, and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. The result of these incidents may include disrupted operations, misstated or unreliable financial data, disrupted market price of our common stock, misappropriation of assets, liability for stolen assets or information, increased cybersecurity protection and insurance cost, regulatory enforcement, litigation and damage to our relationships. These risks require continuous and likely increasing attention and other resources from us to, among other actions, identify and quantify these risks, upgrade and expand our technologies, systems and processes to adequately address them and provide periodic training for our employees to assist them in detecting phishing, malware and other schemes. Such attention diverts time and other resources from other activities and there is no assurance that our efforts will be effective. Potential sources for disruption, damage or failure of our information technology systems include, without limitation, computer viruses, security breaches, human error, cyber- attacks, natural disasters and defects in design. Additionally, due to the size and nature of our company, we rely on third-party service providers for many aspects of our business. We can provide no assurance that the networks and systems that our third-party vendors have established or use will be effective. As our reliance on technology has increased, so have the risks posed to both our information systems and those provided by third-party service providers. Our processes, procedures and internal controls that are designed to mitigate cybersecurity risks and cyber intrusions do not guarantee that a cyber incident will not occur or that our financial results, operations or confidential information will not be negatively impacted by such an incident.
We may seek to expand our business internationally, which will expose us to additional risks that we do not face in the United States, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
We generate substantially all of our revenue from operations in the United States. We may seek to expand our projects outside of the United States in the future. These operations will be subject to a variety of risks that we do not face in the United States, including risk from changes in foreign country regulations, infrastructure, legal systems and markets. Other risks include possible difficulty in repatriating overseas earnings and fluctuations in foreign currencies.
Our overall success in international markets will depend, in part, on our ability to succeed in different legal, regulatory, economic, social and political conditions. We may not be successful in developing and implementing policies and strategies that will be effective in managing these risks in each country where we decide to do business. Our failure to manage these risks successfully could harm our international projects, reduce our international income or increase our costs, thus adversely affecting our business, financial condition and operating results.
We grow our business in part through future acquisitions or other similar investments.
As we grow our business, we have used, and will continue to use, acquisitions of, or other types of transactions such as equity or convertible debt investments in, companies or assets to invest in new or different projects or markets, expand our project skill-sets and capabilities, expand our geographic markets, add experienced management and increase our product and service offerings. There are a number of risks associated with these transactions and we may not achieve our goals in the transaction. Such transaction could disrupt our business, cause dilution to our stockholders and harm our business, financial condition or operating results. In addition, the time and effort involved to identify candidates and consummate such transactions may divert members of our management from the operations of our company.
Risks Relating to Regulation
We cannot predict the unintended consequences and market distortions that may stem from far-ranging governmental intervention in the economic and financial system or from regulatory reform of the oversight of financial markets.
The U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the U.S. Treasury, the SEC, U.S. Congress and other governmental and regulatory bodies have taken, are taking or may in the future take, various actions to address financial crises or other areas of regulatory concern. Such actions could have a dramatic impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition, and the cost of complying with any additional laws and regulations or the elimination or reduction in scope of various existing laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. The far-ranging government intervention in the economic and financial system may carry unintended consequences and cause market distortions. We are unable to predict at this time the extent and nature of such unintended consequences and market distortions, if any. The inability to evaluate the potential impacts could have a material adverse effect on the operations of our business.
Loss of our 1940 Act exemptions would adversely affect us, the market price of shares of our common stock and our ability to distribute dividends.
We conduct our operations so that we are not required to register as an investment company under the 1940 Act. Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the 1940 Act defines an investment company as any issuer that is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities. Section 3(a)(1)(C) of the 1940 Act defines an investment company as any issuer that is engaged or proposes to engage in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading in securities and owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of the issuer’s total assets (exclusive of U.S. Government securities and cash items) on a non-consolidated basis, which we refer to as the 40% test. Excluded from the term “investment securities,” among other things, are U.S. Government securities and securities issued by majority-owned subsidiaries that are not themselves investment companies and are not relying on the exemption from the definition of investment company set forth in Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) of the 1940 Act.
We conduct our businesses primarily through our subsidiaries and our operations so that we comply with the 40% test. The securities issued by any wholly-owned or majority-owned subsidiaries that we hold or may form in the future that are exempted from the definition of “investment company” based on Section 3(c)(1) or 3(c)(7) of the 1940 Act, together with any other investment securities we may own, may not have a value in excess of 40% of the value of our total assets on a non-consolidated basis. Certain of our subsidiaries rely on or will rely on an exemption from registration as an investment company under the 1940 Act pursuant to Section 3(c)(5)(C) of the 1940 Act, which is available for entities which are not primarily engaged in issuing redeemable securities, face-amount certificates of the installment type or periodic payment plan certificates and which are primarily engaged in the business of purchasing or otherwise acquiring mortgages and other liens on and interests in real estate. This exemption generally requires that at least 55% of such subsidiaries’ portfolios must be comprised of qualifying assets and at least 80% of each of their portfolios must be comprised of qualifying assets and real estate-related assets under the 1940 Act. Consistent with guidance published by the SEC staff, we intend to treat as qualifying assets for this purpose loans secured by projects for which the original principal amount of the loan did not exceed 100% of the value of the underlying real property portion of the collateral when the loan was made. We intend to treat as real estate-related assets non-controlling equity interests in joint ventures that own projects whose assets are primarily real property. In general, with regard to our subsidiaries relying on Section 3(c)(5)(C), we rely on other guidance published by the SEC or its staff or on our analyses of guidance published with respect to other types of assets to determine which assets are qualifying real estate assets and real estate-related assets.
In addition, one or more of our subsidiaries qualifies for an exemption from registration as an investment company under the 1940 Act pursuant to either Section 3(c)(5)(A) of the 1940 Act, which is available for entities which are not engaged in the business of issuing redeemable securities, face-amount certificates of the installment type or periodic payment plan certificates, and which are primarily engaged in the business of purchasing or otherwise acquiring notes, drafts, acceptances, open accounts receivable, and other obligations representing part or all of the sales price of merchandise, insurance, and services, or Section 3(c)(5)(B) of the 1940 Act, which is available for entities primarily engaged in the business of making loans to manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers of, and to prospective purchasers of, specified merchandise, insurance, and services. These exemptions generally require that at least 55% of such subsidiaries’ portfolios must be comprised of qualifying assets that meet the requirements of the exemption. We intend to treat energy efficiency loans where the loan proceeds are specifically provided to finance equipment, services and structural improvements to properties and other facilities and renewable energy and other climate solutions projects or improvements as qualifying assets for purposes of these exemptions. In general, we also expect, with regard to our subsidiaries relying on Section 3(c)(5)(A) or (B), to rely on guidance published by the SEC or its staff, including reliance on a no-action letter obtained in connection with Sections 3(c)(5)(A) and 3(c)(5)(B) of the 1940 Act, or on our analyses of guidance published with respect to other types of assets to determine which assets are qualifying assets under the exemptions.
Although we monitor the portfolios of our subsidiaries relying on the Section 3(c)(5)(A), (B) or (C) exemptions periodically and prior to each acquisition, there can be no assurance that such subsidiaries will be able to maintain their exemptions. Qualification for exemptions from registration under the 1940 Act will limit our ability to make certain investments. For example, these restrictions will limit the ability of these subsidiaries to make loans that are not secured by real property or that do not represent part or all of the sales price of merchandise, insurance, and services.
There can be no assurance that the laws and regulations governing the 1940 Act, including the Division of Investment Management of the SEC providing more specific or different guidance regarding these exemptions, will not change in a manner that adversely affects our operations. For example, on August 31, 2011, the SEC issued a concept release (No. IC-29778; File No. SW7-34-11, Companies Engaged in the Business of Acquiring Mortgages and Mortgage-Related Instruments) pursuant to which it is reviewing the scope of the exemption from registration under Section 3(c)(5)(C) of the 1940 Act. While the SEC has yet to provide additional information on its position relating to these exemptions and timing of any future changes to the exemptions remain unknown, any additional guidance from the SEC or its staff from this process or in other circumstances could provide additional flexibility to us, or it could further inhibit our ability to pursue the strategies we have chosen. If we or our subsidiaries fail to maintain an exemption from the 1940 Act, we could, among other things, be required either to (1) change the manner in which we conduct our operations to avoid being required to register as an investment company, (2) effect sales of our assets in a manner that, or at a time when, we would not otherwise choose to do so or (3) register as an investment company, any of which could negatively affect our business, our ability to make distributions, our financing strategy and the market price for our shares of common stock.
We have not requested the SEC or its staff to approve our treatment of any company as a majority-owned subsidiary and neither the SEC nor its staff has done so. If the SEC or its staff were to disagree with our treatment of one or more companies as majority-owned subsidiaries, we would need to adjust our strategy and our assets in order to continue to pass the 40% test. Any such adjustment in our strategy could have a material adverse effect on us.
Rapid changes in the values of our assets may make it more difficult for us to maintain our qualification as a REIT or our exemption from the 1940 Act.
If the market value or income potential of our assets changes as a result of changes in interest rates, general market conditions, government actions or other factors, we may need to adjust the portfolio mix of our real estate assets and income or liquidate our non-qualifying assets to maintain our REIT qualification or our exemption from the 1940 Act. If changes in asset values or income occur quickly, this may be especially difficult to accomplish. This difficulty may be exacerbated by the illiquid nature of the assets we may own. We may have to make decisions that we otherwise would not make absent the REIT and 1940 Act considerations.
Because we expect to distribute substantially all of our REIT taxable income to our stockholders, we will need additional capital to finance our growth and such capital may not be available on favorable terms or at all.
We will need additional capital to fund our growth. U.S. federal income tax law generally requires that a REIT distribute annually at least 90% of its REIT taxable income, without regard to the deduction for dividends paid and excluding net capital gains, and that it pay tax at regular corporate rates to the extent that it annually distributes greater than 90% but less than 100% of such REIT taxable income. Because we intend to grow our business, this limitation may require us to incur additional debt or raise additional equity at a time when it may be disadvantageous to do so. We cannot make any assurance that debt and equity financing will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all, and debt financings may be restricted by the terms of any of our outstanding borrowings. If additional funds are not available to us, we could be forced to curtail or cease new asset originations and acquisitions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
Risks Related to our Borrowings and Hedging
We use financial leverage in executing our business strategy, which may adversely affect the returns on our assets and may reduce cash available for distribution to our stockholders, as well as increase losses when economic conditions are unfavorable.
We use debt to finance our assets, including credit facilities, recourse and non-recourse debt, securitizations, and syndications. Changes in the financial markets and the economy generally could adversely affect one or more of our lenders or potential lenders and could cause one or more of our lenders, potential lenders or institutional investors to be unwilling or unable to provide us with financing or participate in securitizations or could increase the costs of that financing or securitization. Some of our borrowings will have a remaining balance when they come due. If we are unable to repay or refinance the remaining balance of this debt, or if the terms of any available refinancing are not favorable, we may be forced to liquidate assets or incur higher costs which may significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and our ability to make distributions, which could cause the value of our common stock to decline. The return on our assets and cash available for distribution to our stockholders may be reduced to the extent that market conditions prevent us from leveraging our assets or increase the cost of our financing relative to the income that can be derived from the assets acquired.
Increases in our financing costs will reduce cash available for distributions to stockholders. We may not be able to meet our financing obligations and, to the extent that we cannot, we risk the loss of some or all of our assets to liquidation or sale to satisfy the obligations.
An increase in our borrowing costs relative to the interest we receive on our assets may adversely affect our profitability and our cash available for distribution to our stockholders. Our borrowings may have a shorter duration than our assets.
As some of our borrowings will have a remaining balance at maturity, we may be required to enter into new borrowings at higher rates or to sell certain of our assets to repay the loan. In addition, any increases in the federal funds rate announced by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is likely to increase shorter-term interest rates and may lower the difference between shorter-term interest rates and longer-term interest rates which would result in a flattening or inversion of the yield curve. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors raised the federal funds rate nine times during the period between December 2015 and December 2018 and has announced its intention to determine what future adjustments are appropriate to the federal funds rate over time, including as a result of increased concerns over inflation, but such changes in fiscal and monetary policies are beyond our control and are difficult to predict.
Our credit facilities have rates that adjust on a frequent basis based on prevailing short-term interest rates. An increase in interest rates, or a flattening or inversion of the yield curve, would reduce the spread between the returns on our assets which are typically priced using longer-term interest rates and the cost of any new borrowings or borrowings where the interest rate adjusts to market rates or is based on shorter-term rates. This change in interest rates would adversely affect our earnings and, in turn, cash available for distribution to our stockholders. In addition, as we may use short-term borrowings including repurchase agreements and warehouse facilities that are generally short-term commitments of capital, lenders may respond to market conditions making it more difficult for us to obtain continued financing. If we are not able to renew our then existing facilities or arrange for new financing on terms acceptable to us, or if we default on our covenants or are otherwise unable to access funds under any of these facilities, we may have to curtail entering into new transactions and/or dispose of assets. We will face these risks given that a number of our borrowings have a shorter duration than the assets they finance.
While we have an established Board-approved leverage limit, our Board may change our leverage limits without stockholder approval.
We are not restricted by any regulatory requirements to maintain our leverage ratio at or below any particular level. The amount of leverage we may deploy for particular assets will depend upon the availability of particular types of financing and our assessment of the credit, liquidity, price volatility and other risks of those assets and the credit quality of our financing counterparties. We have established leverage limits which are discussed in Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources. However, our charter and bylaws do not limit the amount or type of indebtedness we can incur, and our board of directors has changed, and has the discretion to deviate from or change at any time in the future, our leverage policy, which could result in an investment portfolio with a different risk profile. We utilize non-recourse facilities on certain types of assets that have significantly higher leverage. On these facilities, the lenders’ primary recourse is to the pledged assets. If the value of the pledged assets is below the value of the debt or if we default on a facility, the lender would be able to foreclose on all the pledged assets, which would result in losses and reduce our assets and the cash available for distributions to stockholders. We may apply too much leverage to our assets or may employ an inefficient financing strategy to our assets.
The use of securitizations and special purpose entities exposes us to additional risks.
We hold securitized loans and often hold the most junior certificates or the residual value associated with a securitization. We have also established funds and special purpose entities through which we hold only a partial or subordinate interest or a residual value after taking into account our non-recourse debt facilities or a right to participate in the profits of such entity once it achieves a predefined threshold. As a holder of the residual value or other such interests, we are more exposed to losses on the underlying collateral because the interest we retain in the securitization vehicle or other entity would be subordinate to the more senior notes or interests issued to investors and we would, therefore, absorb all of the losses, up to the value of our interests, sustained with respect to the underlying assets before the owners of the notes or other interests experience any losses. In addition, the inability to securitize our Portfolio or assets within our Portfolio could hurt our performance and our ability to grow our business.
We also use various special purpose entities to own and finance our assets. These subsidiaries incur various types of debt, that can be used to finance one or more of our assets. This debt is typically structured as non-recourse debt, which means it is repayable solely from the revenue from the investment financed by the debt and is secured by the related physical assets, major contracts, cash accounts and in some cases, a pledge of our ownership interests in the subsidiaries involved in the projects. Although this subsidiary debt is typically non-recourse to us, we make certain representations and warranties or enter into certain guaranties of our subsidiary’s obligations or covenants to the non-recourse debt holder, the breach of which may require us to make payments to the lender. We may also from time to time determine to provide financial support to the subsidiary in
order to maintain rights to the project or otherwise avoid the adverse consequences of a default. In the event a subsidiary defaults on its indebtedness, its creditors may foreclose on the collateral securing the indebtedness, which may result in us losing our ownership interest in some or all of the subsidiary’s assets. The loss of our ownership interest in a subsidiary or some or all of a subsidiary’s assets could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our existing credit facilities and debt contain, and any future financing facilities may contain, covenants that restrict our operations and may inhibit our ability to grow our business and increase revenues.
Our existing credit facilities and debt contain, and any future financing facilities may contain, various affirmative and negative covenants, including maintenance of an interest coverage ratio and limitations on the incurrence of liens and indebtedness, investments, fundamental organizational changes, dispositions, changes in the nature of business, transactions with affiliates, use of proceeds and stock repurchases. In addition, the terms of our non-recourse debt include restrictions and covenants, including limitations on our ability to transfer or incur liens on the assets that secure the debt. For further information see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources.
The covenants and restrictions included in our existing financings do, and the covenants and restrictions to be included in any future financings may, restrict our ability to, among other things:
•incur or guarantee additional debt;
•make certain investments, originations or acquisitions;
•make distributions on or repurchase or redeem capital stock;
•engage in mergers or consolidations;
•reduce liquidity below certain levels;
•grant liens;
•have a tangible net worth below a defined threshold;
•incur operating losses for more than a specified period; and
•enter into transactions with affiliates.
Our non-recourse debt limits our ability to take action with regard to the assets pledged as security for the debt. These restrictions, as well as any other covenants contained in any future financings, may interfere with our ability to obtain financing, or to engage in other business activities, which may significantly limit or harm our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. Certain financing agreements also contain cross-default provisions, so that if a default occurs under any one agreement, the lenders under our other agreements could also declare a default. A default and resulting repayment acceleration could significantly reduce our liquidity, which could require us to sell our assets to repay amounts due and outstanding. This could also significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and our ability to make distributions, which could cause the value of our common stock to decline and adversely affect our ability to qualify, or remain qualified, as a REIT. A default will also significantly limit our financing alternatives such that we will be unable to pursue our leverage strategy, which could curtail the returns on our assets.
In addition, certain of our financing arrangements contain provisions that provide for a preference in cash flow allocations to the lender from our assets or an acceleration of principal payments owed when certain conditions are present related to the underlying assets that serve as collateral for the financing. These provisions may limit our ability to obtain distributions from the underlying assets and could impact our cash flow and expected returns.
We have issued senior unsecured notes which require us to maintain a certain amount of unencumbered assets as a part of our Portfolio, as well as to maintain certain debt coverage service ratios in order to issue additional notes. These provisions may limit our ability to leverage certain assets and limit our overall debt levels.
We will have to pay off the remaining balance or refinance our borrowings when they become due. The failure to be able to pay off the remaining balance or refinance such borrowings or an increase in interest rates of such refinancing could have a material impact on our business.
Some of our borrowings will have a remaining balance when they become due. If our subsidiary is unable to repay or refinance the remaining balance of this debt, or if the terms of any available refinancing are not favorable, we may be forced to liquidate assets or incur higher costs which may significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and our ability to make distributions, which could cause the value of our common stock to decline.
If a counterparty to repurchase transactions defaults on its obligation to resell the underlying security back to us at the end of the transaction term, or if the value of the underlying security has declined as of the end of that term, or if we default on obligations under the repurchase agreement, we may lose money on repurchase transactions.
In repurchase transactions, we will generally sell certain of our assets to lenders (i.e., repurchase agreement counterparties) and receive cash from the lenders. The lenders will be obligated to resell the same assets back to us at the end of the term of the transaction. Because the cash we will receive from the lender when we initially sell the assets to the lender is less than its value, if the lender defaults on its obligation to resell the same asset back to us we would incur a loss on the transaction equal to the differential in value at which the lender purchased the asset (assuming there was no other change in value). We would also lose money on a repurchase transaction if the value of the underlying asset has declined as of the end of the transaction term, as we would have to repurchase the assets for their initial value but would receive loans worth less than that amount. We may also be forced to sell assets at significantly depressed prices to meet margin calls, post additional collateral and maintain adequate liquidity, which could cause us to incur losses. Moreover, to the extent we are forced to sell assets at such time, given market conditions, we may be selling at the same time as others facing similar pressures, which could exacerbate a difficult market environment and which could result in our incurring significantly greater losses on our sale of such assets. In an extreme case of market duress, a market may not even be present for certain of our assets at any price. Such a situation would likely result in a rapid deterioration of our financial condition and possibly necessitate a filing for protection under the United States Bankruptcy Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”). Further, if we default on one of our obligations under a repurchase transaction, the lender will be able to terminate the transaction and cease entering into any other repurchase transactions with us. Our repurchase agreements may contain cross-default provisions, so that if a default occurs under any one agreement, the lenders under any other of our agreements could also declare a default. If a default occurs under any of our repurchase agreements and the lenders terminate one or more of our repurchase agreements, we may need to enter into replacement repurchase agreements with different lenders. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in entering into such replacement repurchase agreements on the same terms as the repurchase agreements that were terminated or at all. Any losses we incur on our repurchase transactions could adversely affect our earnings and thus our cash available for distribution to our stockholders. In the event of our insolvency or bankruptcy, certain repurchase agreements may qualify for special treatment under the Bankruptcy Code, the effect of which, among other things, would be to allow the lender under the applicable repurchase agreement to avoid the automatic stay provisions of the Bankruptcy Code and to foreclose on the collateral agreement without delay, which could ultimately reduce the amounts we could otherwise recover.
The discontinuation of U.S. dollar London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) may adversely affect our borrowing costs and the costs of any related hedging transactions.
The terms of certain of our revolving credit facilities and interest rate hedge agreements refer to U.S. dollar LIBOR. As announced on March 5, 2021 by the ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (“IBA”) and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, the IBA will cease publishing the overnight, 1-month, 3-month, 6-month and 12-month settings of U.S. dollar LIBOR rates immediately after June 30, 2023. The Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARCC”), which was convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the New York Federal Reserve Bank, has identified the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) as the recommended risk-free alternative rate for U.S. dollar LIBOR. Some of our financing arrangements may not include robust fallback language that would facilitate replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with a clearly defined alternative reference rate. We may not able to amend or refinance these credit facilities and interest rate hedge agreements prior to the discontinuation of U.S. dollar LIBOR, or applicable legislation or regulations may provide a benchmark replacement rate based on SOFR, a spread adjustment and conforming changes. Even when robust fallback language is included in financing arrangements, there can be no assurance that the benchmark replacement rate plus any spread adjustment will be economically equivalent to U.S. dollar LIBOR. In addition, market practices related to calculation conventions for replacement benchmark rates continue to develop and may vary, and inconsistent conventions may develop among financial products. Inconsistent use of replacement rates or calculation conventions among financial products could expose us to additional financial risks and increase the cost of any related hedging transactions. It is not possible to predict all consequences of the IBA’s plans to cease publishing LIBOR, any related regulatory actions and the expected discontinuance of the use of LIBOR as a reference rate for financial contracts. Any transition from LIBOR to alternative reference rates could result in financial market disruptions or significant increases in our borrowing costs or the costs of any related hedging, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and the market price of our common stock.
Borrowings under our CarbonCount®-Based Revolving Credit Facility bear interest at a variable rate that is based on the SOFR, which may have consequences for us that cannot be reasonably predicted and may adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.
Borrowings under our CarbonCount®-Based Revolving Credit Facility may bear interest at a rate per annum that is based upon SOFR. Although SOFR has been endorsed by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee as its preferred replacement for LIBOR, it remains uncertain whether or when SOFR or other alternative reference rates will be widely accepted by lenders as
the replacement for LIBOR. This may, in turn, impact the liquidity of the SOFR loan market, and SOFR itself. Since the initial publication of SOFR, daily changes in the rate have, on occasion, been more volatile than daily changes in comparable benchmark or market rates, and SOFR over time may bear little or no relation to the historical actual or historical indicative data and use of SOFR may result in interest rates and/or payments that are higher or lower than the rates and payments that we might have experienced using LIBOR. Also, the use of SOFR based rates is relatively new, and there could be unanticipated difficulties or disruptions with the calculation and publication of SOFR based rates. In particular, if the agent under the CarbonCount®-Based Revolving Credit Facility determines that SOFR based rates cannot be determined or the agent or the lenders determine that SOFR based rates do not adequately reflect the cost of funding the SOFR loans, outstanding SOFR loans will be converted into ABR Loans (as defined in the CarbonCount®-Based Revolving Credit Facility). The possible volatility of and uncertainty around SOFR as a LIBOR replacement rate and the potential conversion to ABR Loans could result in higher borrowing costs for us, which would adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.
We, or the projects in which we invest, enter into hedging transactions that could expose us to contingent liabilities or additional credit risk in the future and adversely impact our financial condition.
Subject to maintaining our qualification as a REIT, part of our strategy, or the strategy of the projects in which we invest, involves entering into hedging transactions that could require us to fund cash payments in certain circumstances (e.g., the early termination of the hedging instrument caused by an event of default or other early termination event, or the decision by a counterparty to request margin it is contractually owed under the terms of the hedging instrument). The amount due would be equal to the unrealized loss of the open swap positions with the respective counterparty and could also include other fees and charges. These economic losses will be reflected in our, or the project’s, financial statements, and our, or the project’s, ability to fund these obligations will depend on the liquidity of our, or the project’s, assets and access to capital at the time, and the need to fund these obligations could adversely impact our financial condition.
In addition, over-the-counter hedges entered into to hedge interest rates, credit risk or commodity prices involve risk since they often are not traded on regulated exchanges or cleared through a central counterparty. We would remain exposed to our counterparty’s ability to perform on its obligations under each hedge and cannot look to the creditworthiness of a central counterparty for performance. As a result, if a hedging counterparty cannot perform under the terms of the hedge, we would not receive payments due under that hedge, we may lose any unrealized gain associated with the hedge and the hedged liability would cease to be hedged. While we would seek to terminate the relevant hedge transaction and may have a claim against the defaulting counterparty for any losses, including unrealized gains, there is no assurance that we would be able to recover such amounts or to replace the relevant hedge on economically viable terms or at all. In such case, we could be forced to cover our unhedged liabilities at the then current market price. We may also be at risk for any collateral we have pledged to secure our obligations under the hedge if the counterparty becomes insolvent or files for bankruptcy.
Furthermore, our interest rate swaps and other hedge transactions are subject to increasing statutory and other regulatory requirements and, depending on the identity of the counterparty, applicable international requirements. Recently, new regulations have been promulgated by U.S. and foreign regulators to strengthen the oversight of swaps, and any further actions taken by such regulators could constrain our strategy or increase our costs, either of which could materially and adversely impact our results of operations.
Additionally, applicable regulations require certain derivatives, including certain interest rate swaps, to be executed on a regulated market and cleared through a central counterparty. Unlike over-the-counter swaps, the counterparty for the cleared swaps is the clearing house, which reduces counterparty risk. However, cleared swaps require us to appoint clearing brokers and to post margin in accordance with the clearing house’s rules, which has resulted in increased costs for cleared swaps compared to over-the-counter swaps. Our over-the-counter hedges with swap dealers are subject to margin regulations which prescribe the required margin, limit eligible margin to cash and specified types of securities. These margin regulations have the effect, therefore, of increasing the costs of hedging and could induce us to limit our use of certain hedging transactions.
Also, any mortgage real estate investment trust that trades in swaps may be considered a "commodity pool," which would cause its operator to be regulated as a “commodity pool operator” (a “CPO”). Operators of mortgage REITs are currently exempt from CPO registration requirements, subject to certain qualification parameters. The need to operate within these parameters could limit the use of swaps and other commodity interests by us below the level that we would otherwise consider optimal or may lead to the registration of our company, our management team or our directors as commodity pool operators, which will subject us to additional regulatory oversight, compliance and costs.
Moreover, the projects in which we invest, may enter into various forms of hedging including interest rate and power price hedging. To the extent they enter into such hedges, the financial results of the project will be exposed to similar risks as described above which could adversely impact our results of operations.
If we, or our projects, choose not to pursue, or fail to qualify for, hedge accounting treatment, our operating results may be impacted because losses on the derivatives that we enter into may not be offset by a change in the fair value of the related hedged transaction.
We, or our projects, may choose not to pursue, or fail to qualify for, hedge accounting treatment relating to derivative and hedging transactions. We, or our projects, may fail to qualify for hedge accounting treatment for a number of reasons, including if we, or our projects, use instruments that do not meet the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 815 definition of a derivative, we, or our projects, fail to satisfy ASC Topic 815 hedge documentation and hedge effectiveness assessment requirements or the hedge relationship is not highly effective. If we, or our projects, fail to qualify for, or choose not to pursue, hedge accounting treatment, our, or our projects, operating results may be impacted because losses on the derivatives that we, or our projects, enter into may not be offset by a change in the fair value of the related hedged transaction.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
An active trading market for our common stock may not continue, which could cause our common stock to trade at a discount and make it difficult for holders of our common stock to sell their shares.
Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). However, an active trading market for our common stock may not continue, which could cause our common stock to trade at a discount to historical prices. Some of the factors that have or in the future could negatively affect the market price of our common stock include:
•our actual or projected operating results, financial condition, cash flows and liquidity or changes in business strategy or prospects;
•changes in the mix of our investment products and services, including the level of securitizations or fee income in any quarter;
•actual or perceived conflicts of interest with individuals, including our executives;
•our ability to arrange financing for projects;
•equity issuances by us, or share resales by our stockholders, or the perception that such issuances or resales may occur;
•seasonality in construction and demand for our investments;
•actual or anticipated accounting problems;
•publication of research reports about us or the climate solutions industry;
•changes in market valuations of similar companies;
•adverse market reaction to any increased indebtedness we may incur in the future;
•commodity price changes;
•interest rate changes;
•additions to or departures of our key personnel;
•speculation or negative publicity in the press or investment community;
•our failure to meet, or the lowering of, our earnings estimates or those of any securities analysts;
•increases in market interest rates, which may lead investors to demand a higher distribution yield for our common stock, and would result in increased interest expenses on certain of our debt;
•changes in governmental policies, regulations or laws;
•failure to qualify, or maintain our qualification, as a REIT or failure to maintain our exemption from registration as an investment company under the 1940 Act;
•price and volume fluctuations in the stock market generally; and
•general market and economic conditions, including the current state of the credit and capital markets.
Market factors unrelated to our performance also have, and could in the future, negatively impact the market price of our common stock. One of the factors that investors may consider in deciding whether to buy or sell our common stock is our distribution rate as a percentage of our stock price relative to market interest rates. If market interest rates increase, prospective investors may demand a higher distribution rate or seek alternative investments paying higher dividends or interest. As a result,
interest rate fluctuations and conditions in capital markets have, or in the future could, affect the market value of our common stock.
Common stock and preferred stock eligible for future sale may have adverse effects on our share price.
Subject to applicable law, our Board, without stockholder approval, may authorize us to issue additional authorized and unissued shares of common stock and preferred stock on the terms and for the consideration it deems appropriate.
We cannot predict the effect, if any, of future sales of our common stock or the availability of shares for future sales, on the market price of our common stock. Sales of substantial amounts of common stock or the perception that such sales could occur may adversely affect the prevailing market price for our common stock.
We cannot assure you of our ability to make distributions in the future. If our portfolio of assets fails to generate sufficient income and cash flow, we could be required to sell assets, borrow funds, raise additional equity or make a portion of our distributions in the form of a taxable stock distribution or distribution of debt securities.
We are generally required to distribute to our stockholders at least 90% of our REIT taxable income (without regard to the deduction for dividends paid and excluding net capital gains) each year for us to qualify, and maintain our qualification, as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Internal Revenue Code”). Our current policy is to pay quarterly distributions, which on an annual basis is expected to equal or substantially exceed 90% or more of our REIT taxable income. In the event that our Board authorizes distributions in excess of the income or cash flow generated from our assets, we may make such distributions from the proceeds of future offerings of equity or debt securities or other forms of debt financing or the sale of assets.
Our ability to make distributions may be adversely affected by a number of factors. Therefore, although we anticipate making quarterly distributions to our stockholders, our Board has the sole discretion to determine the timing, form and amount of any distributions to our stockholders. If our portfolio of assets fails to generate sufficient income and cash flow, we could be required to sell assets, borrow funds, raise additional equity or make a portion of our distributions in the form of a taxable stock distribution or distribution of debt securities. To the extent that we are required to sell assets in adverse market conditions or borrow funds at unfavorable rates, our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. If we raise additional equity, our stock price could be materially and adversely affected. Our Board will make determinations regarding distributions based upon various factors, including our earnings, our financial condition, our liquidity, our debt covenants, maintenance of our REIT qualification, applicable provisions of the MGCL and other factors as our Board may deem relevant from time to time. We believe that a change in any one of the following factors could adversely affect our results of operations and impair our ability to make distributions to our stockholders:
•our ability to make profitable investments;
•margin calls or other expenses that reduce our cash flow;
•defaults in our asset portfolio or decreases in the value of our portfolio;
•the cash flow we receive from our assets, including those subject to non-recourse debt; and
•the fact that anticipated operating expense levels may not prove accurate, as actual results may vary from estimates.
As a result, no assurance can be given that we will be able to make distributions to our stockholders at any time in the future or that the level of any distributions we do make to our stockholders will achieve a market yield or increase or even be maintained over time, any of which could materially and adversely affect us.
In addition, all or a portion of the distributions that we make to our stockholders will be taxable as ordinary income, subject to a potential deduction equal to 20% of the amount of such dividends for taxable years beginning in 2018 and ending in 2025, which generally reduces the effective U.S. federal income tax rate applicable to such dividends. However, a portion of our distributions may be designated by us as long-term capital gains to the extent that they are attributable to capital gain income recognized by us or may constitute a return of capital to the extent that they exceed our earnings and profits as determined for tax purposes. A return of capital is not taxable income but has the effect of reducing the basis of a stockholder’s investment in shares of our common stock.
Future offerings of debt or equity securities, which may rank senior to our common stock, may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Our present debt ranks, and any future debt would rank, senior to our common stock. Such debt is, and likely will be, governed by a loan agreement, an indenture, or other instrument containing covenants restricting our operating flexibility. Additionally, our convertible securities, and any equity securities or convertible or exchangeable securities that we issue in the future may have rights, preferences and privileges more favorable than those of our common stock and may result in dilution to owners of our common stock. We and, indirectly, our stockholders will bear the cost of issuing and servicing such debt or securities. Because our decision to issue debt or equity securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of our future offerings. Thus, holders of our common stock will bear the risk of our future offerings reducing the market price of our common stock and diluting the value of their stock holdings in us.
Risks Related to Our Organization and Structure
Our business could be harmed if key personnel terminate their employment with us.
Our success depends, to a significant extent, on the continued services of our senior management team. We have entered into employment agreements with certain members of our senior management team. Notwithstanding these agreements, there can be no assurance that any or all members of our senior management team will remain employed by us. We do not maintain key person life insurance on any of our officers other than two policies we maintain for Mr. Eckel under which we are a beneficiary in the amount of approximately $500 thousand. The loss of services of one or more members of our senior management team could harm our business and our prospects.
Conflicts of interest could arise as a result of our structure.
Conflicts of interest could arise in the future as a result of the relationships between us and our affiliates, on the one hand, and our Operating Partnership or any partner thereof, on the other. Our directors and officers have duties to our company under applicable Maryland law in connection with our management. Our duties, as the general partner, to our Operating Partnership and our partners may come into conflict with the duties of our directors and officers to us.
Under Delaware law, a general partner of a Delaware limited partnership owes its limited partners the duties of good faith and fair dealing. Other duties, including fiduciary duties, may be modified or eliminated in the partnership’s partnership agreement, except that conflict of interest transactions may still run afoul of implied contractual standards under Delaware law. The partnership agreement of our Operating Partnership provides that, for so long as we own a controlling interest in our Operating Partnership, any conflict that cannot be resolved in a manner not adverse to either our stockholders or the limited partners will be resolved in favor of our stockholders. We have not obtained an opinion of counsel covering the provisions set forth in the partnership agreement of our Operating Partnership that purport to waive or restrict our fiduciary duties that would be in effect under common law were it not for the partnership agreement of our Operating Partnership.
Additionally, the partnership agreement of our Operating Partnership expressly limits our liability by providing that neither we, as the general partner of the Operating Partnership, nor any of our directors or officers, will be liable or accountable in damages to our Operating Partnership, its limited partners or their assignees for errors in judgment, mistakes of fact or law or for any act or omission if the general partner, director or officer, acted in good faith. In addition, our Operating Partnership is required to indemnify us, our affiliates and each of our and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law against any and all losses, claims, damages, liabilities (whether joint or several), expenses (including, without limitation, attorneys’ fees and other legal fees and expenses), judgments, fines, settlements and other amounts arising from any and all claims, demands, actions, suits or proceedings, civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, that relate to the operations of the Operating Partnership, provided that our Operating Partnership will not indemnify any such person for (1) willful misconduct or a knowing violation of the law, (2) any transaction for which such person received an improper personal benefit in violation or breach of any provision of the partnership agreement of our Operating Partnership, or (3) in the case of a criminal proceeding, the person had reasonable cause to believe the act or omission was unlawful.
Certain provisions of Maryland law could inhibit changes in control.
Certain provisions of the MGCL may have the effect of deterring a third party from making a proposal to acquire us or of impeding a change in control under circumstances that otherwise could provide the holders of our common stock with the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price of our common stock. We are subject to the “business combination” provisions of the MGCL that, subject to limitations, prohibit certain business combinations between us and an “interested stockholder” (defined generally as any person who beneficially owns 10% or more of our then outstanding voting stock or an affiliate or associate of ours who, at any time within the two-year period prior to the date in question, was the beneficial owner of 10% or more of our then outstanding voting stock) or an affiliate thereof for five years after the most recent date on which the stockholder becomes an interested stockholder and, thereafter, impose fair price and/or supermajority stockholder voting requirements on these combinations.
The “control share” provisions of the MGCL provide that, subject to certain exemptions, a holder of “control shares” of a Maryland corporation (defined as shares which, when aggregated with all other shares controlled by the stockholder (except solely by virtue of a revocable proxy), entitle the stockholder to exercise one of three increasing ranges of voting power in electing directors) acquired in a “control share acquisition” (defined as the direct or indirect acquisition of ownership or control of issued and outstanding “control shares”) has no voting rights with respect to such shares except to the extent approved by our stockholders by the affirmative vote of at least two thirds of all the votes entitled to be cast on the matter, excluding votes entitled to be cast by the acquirer of control shares, our officers and our directors who are also our employees.
The “unsolicited takeover” provisions of Title 3, Subtitle 8 of the MGCL permit our Board, without stockholder approval and regardless of what is currently provided in our charter or bylaws, to implement certain takeover defenses, some of which (for example, a classified board) we do not yet have.
As permitted by the MGCL, our Board has by resolution exempted from the “business combination” provision of the MGC business combinations (1) between us and any other person, provided, that such business combination is first approved by our Board (including a majority of our directors who are not affiliates or associates of such person), (2) the Predecessor and its affiliates and associates as part of our formation transactions and (3) persons acting in concert with any of the foregoing. Our bylaws contain a provision exempting from the control share acquisition statute any and all acquisitions by any person of shares of our stock. There can be no assurance that our Board will not amend or revoke the exemption at any time.
Our authorized but unissued shares of common and preferred stock may prevent a change in our control.
Our charter permits our Board to authorize us to issue additional shares of our authorized but unissued common or preferred stock. In addition, our Board may, without common stockholder approval, amend our charter to increase the aggregate number of our shares of stock or the number of shares of stock of any class or series that we have the authority to issue and classify or reclassify any unissued shares of common or preferred stock and set the terms of the classified or reclassified shares. As a result, our Board may establish a series of common or preferred stock that could delay or prevent a transaction or a change in control that might involve a premium price for shares of our common stock or otherwise be in the best interest of our stockholders.
Our rights and the rights of our stockholders to take action against our directors and officers are limited, which could limit stockholder recourse in the event of actions not in our stockholders’ best interests.
Our charter eliminates the liability of our present and former directors and officers to us and our stockholders for money damages to the maximum extent permitted under Maryland law.
Our charter authorizes us, and our bylaws and indemnification agreements entered into with each of our directors and executive officers require us, to the maximum extent permitted by Maryland law, to indemnify and, without requiring a preliminary determination of their ultimate entitlement to indemnification, to pay or reimburse defense costs and other expenses of each of our directors and officers in the defense of any proceeding to which he or she is made, or threatened to be made, a party or witness by reason of his or her service to us.
Our charter contains provisions that make removal of our directors difficult, which could make it difficult for our stockholders to effect changes to our management.
Our charter provides that, subject to the rights of holders of any series of preferred stock, a director may be removed with or without cause upon the affirmative vote of holders of at least two thirds of the votes entitled to be cast generally in the election of directors. Vacancies may be filled only by a majority of the remaining directors in office, even if less than a quorum. These requirements make it more difficult to change our management by removing and replacing directors and may prevent a change in control of our company that is in the best interests of our stockholders.
Ownership limitations may restrict change of control or business combination opportunities in which our stockholders might receive a premium for their shares.
In order for us to qualify as a REIT for each taxable year after 2013, no more than 50% in value of our outstanding capital stock may be owned, directly or constructively, by five or fewer individuals during the last half of any calendar year, and at least 100 persons must beneficially own our stock during at least 335 days of a taxable year of 12 months, or during a proportionate portion of a shorter taxable year. “Individuals” for this purpose include natural persons, private foundations, some employee benefit plans and trusts, and some charitable trusts. To assist us in preserving our REIT qualification, among other purposes, our charter generally prohibits any person from directly or indirectly owning more than 9.8% in value or in number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of the aggregate outstanding shares of our capital stock, the outstanding shares of any class or series of our preferred stock or the outstanding shares of our common stock. These ownership limits could have the effect of discouraging a takeover or other transaction in which holders of our common stock might receive a premium for their shares over the then prevailing market price or which holders might believe to be otherwise in their best interests. Our Board has established exemptions from these ownership limits that permit certain institutional investors and their clients to hold shares of our common stock in excess of these ownership limits.
Risks Related to Our Taxation as a REIT
Qualifying as a REIT involves highly technical and complex provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, and our failure to qualify or remain qualified as a REIT would subject us to U.S. federal income tax and applicable state and local tax, which would negatively impact the results of our operations and reduce the amount of cash available for distribution to our stockholders.
We have elected to be treated, and qualify, as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The U.S. federal income tax laws governing REITs are complex, and judicial and administrative interpretations of the U.S. federal income tax laws governing REIT qualification are limited. To qualify as a REIT and remain so qualified, we must meet, on an ongoing basis through actual operating results, various tests regarding the nature and diversification of our assets and our income, the ownership of our outstanding shares, and the amount of our distributions. Even a technical or inadvertent violation could jeopardize our REIT qualification. Our ability to satisfy the asset tests depends upon our analysis of the characterization and fair market values of our assets, some of which are not susceptible to a precise determination, and for which we will not obtain independent appraisals.
We received a private letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), which we refer to as the Ruling, relating to our ability to treat certain of our assets as qualifying REIT assets. We are entitled to rely on this Ruling for those assets which fit within the scope of the Ruling only to the extent that we have the legal and contractual rights described therein, we continue to operate in accordance with the relevant facts described in the ruling request we submitted, that such facts were accurately presented and to the extent such ruling is not inconsistent with the Real Property Regulations (as discussed in more detail below). As a result, no assurance can be given that we will always be able to rely on this Ruling.
In August of 2016, the Treasury Department and the IRS published regulations which we refer to as the Real Property Regulations relating to the definition of “real property” for purposes of the REIT income and asset tests with respect to our taxable years beginning after December 31, 2016. Among other things, the Real Property Regulations provide that an obligation secured by a structural component of a building or other inherently permanent structure qualifies as a real estate asset for REIT qualification purposes only if such obligation is also secured by a real property interest in the inherently permanent structure served by such structural component. This aspect of the Real Property Regulations has important implications for our qualification as a REIT since a significant portion of our REIT qualifying assets consists of receivables that are secured by liens on installed structural improvements designed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and a significant portion of our REIT qualifying gross income is interest income earned with respect to such receivables.
The structural improvements securing our receivables generally qualify as “fixtures” under local real property law, as well as under the Uniform Commercial Code, or the UCC, which governs rights and obligations of parties in secured transactions. Although not controlling for REIT purposes, the general rule in the United States is that once improvements are permanently installed in real properties, such improvements become fixtures and thus take on the character of and are considered to be real property for certain state and local law purposes. In general, in the United States, laws governing fixtures, including the UCC and real property law, afford lenders who have secured their financings with security interests in fixtures with rights that extend not just to the fixtures that secure their financings, but also to the real properties in which such fixtures have been installed. By way of example only, Section 9-604(b) of the UCC, which has been adopted in all but two states in the United States, permits a lender secured by fixtures, upon a default, to enforce its rights under the UCC or under applicable real property laws. Although there is limited authority directly on point, given the nature of, and the extent to which, the structural improvements securing our receivables are integrated into and serve the related buildings, we believe that the better view is that the nature and scope of our rights in such buildings that inure to us as a result of our receivables are sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Real Property Regulations described above. In addition to the limited authority directly on point, two other important caveats apply in this regard. First, the Real Property Regulations do not define what is required for an obligation secured by a lien on a structural component to also be secured by a real property interest in the building served by such structural component. However, the initial proposed version of the Real Property Regulations, which never became effective,
included a requirement that the interest in the real property held by a REIT be “equivalent” to the interest in a structural component held by the REIT in order for the structural component to be treated as a real estate asset. This requirement was ultimately not included in the final Real Property Regulations, in part in response to comments that such requirement may negatively affect investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy assets. We believe the deletion of this requirement implies that under the final Real Property Regulations, our rights in the building need not be equivalent to our rights in the structural components serving the building. Second, real property law is typically relegated to the states and the specific rights available to any lien or mortgage holder, including our rights as a fixture lien holder described above, may vary between jurisdictions as a result of a range of factors, including the specific local real property law requirements and judicial and regulatory interpretations of such laws, and the competing rights of mortgage and other lenders. We have applied the analysis described above in a number of states that have adopted Section 9-604(b) of the UCC. In addition, in states where Section 9-604(b) of the UCC has not been adopted, we apply the analysis described above based on the application of the local real property laws of that state to the extent that we have received advice from counsel in those jurisdictions that local real property law provides us with appropriate rights to the buildings in which the structural improvements securing our receivables have been installed. Furthermore, we have applied the analysis described above to certain receivables secured by liens on structural improvements installed in buildings located in certain U.S. installations outside of the United States, based on our view that such installations are subject to U.S. sovereignty and as a result the UCC applies in such installations. While a number of cases have addressed the rights of fixture lien holders generally, there are limited judicial interpretations in only a few jurisdictions that directly address the rights and remedies available to a fixture lien holder in the real property in which the fixtures have been installed. Such rights have been addressed in some cases that support our position and, in factual circumstances distinguishable from our own, in some cases where the courts have found these rights to be more limited. The resolution of these issues in many jurisdictions therefore remains uncertain. As a result of the foregoing, no assurance can be given that the IRS will not challenge our position that our receivables meet the requirements of the Real Property Regulations or that, if challenged, such position would be sustained.
The preamble to the Real Property Regulations provides that, to the extent a private letter ruling issued prior to the issuance of the Real Property Regulations is inconsistent with the Real Property Regulations, the private letter ruling is revoked prospectively from the applicability date of the Real Property Regulations. We do not believe that the Ruling is inconsistent with the Real Property Regulations because we believe the analysis in the Ruling was based on similar principles as the relevant portions of the Real Property Regulations, and accordingly we do not believe that the Real Property Regulations impact our ability to rely on the Ruling. However, no assurance can be given that the IRS would not successfully assert that we are not permitted to rely on the Ruling because the Ruling has been revoked by the Real Property Regulations.
If the IRS were to assert that a significant portion of our receivables do not qualify as real estate assets and do not generate income treated as interest income from mortgages on real property, we would fail to satisfy both the gross income requirements and asset requirements applicable to REITs. If this were to occur, we would be required to restructure the manner in which we receive such income and we may realize significant income that does not qualify for the REIT 75% gross income test, which could cause us to fail to qualify as a REIT.
In addition, our compliance with the REIT income and quarterly asset requirements also depends upon our ability to successfully manage the composition of our income and assets on an ongoing basis in accordance with existing REIT regulations and rules and interpretations thereof. Moreover, the IRS, new legislation, court decisions or other administrative guidance, in each case possibly with retroactive effect, may make it more difficult or impossible for us to qualify as a REIT. Our ability to satisfy the requirements to qualify as a REIT also depends in part on the actions of third parties over which we have no control or only limited influence, including in cases where we own an equity interest in an entity that is classified as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Thus, given the highly complex nature of the rules governing REITs, the ongoing importance of factual determinations, and the possibility of future changes in our circumstances, no assurance can be given that we will so qualify for any particular year. Further, differences in timing between the recognition of taxable income, our GAAP income and the actual receipt of cash may occur. For example, we may be required to accrue interest and discount income on debt securities or interests in debt securities before we receive any payments of interest or principal on such assets, and there may be timing differences in the accrual of such interest and discount income for tax purposes and for GAAP purposes.
If we fail to qualify as a REIT in any taxable year, and we do not qualify for certain statutory relief provisions, we would be required to pay U.S. federal income tax on our net taxable income, and distributions to our stockholders would not be deductible by us in determining our taxable income. In such a case, we might need to borrow money or sell assets in order to pay our taxes. Our payment of income tax would negatively impact the results of our operations and decrease the amount of our income available for distribution to our stockholders. Furthermore, if we fail to maintain our qualification as a REIT, we no longer would be required to distribute substantially all of our taxable income to our stockholders, which would leave our Board with more discretion over our future distribution levels. In addition, unless we were eligible for certain statutory relief provisions, we could not re-elect to qualify as a REIT for the subsequent four taxable years following the year in which we failed to qualify.
Complying with REIT requirements may force us to liquidate or forego otherwise attractive investments, incur debt, or sell assets at inopportune times.
To qualify as a REIT, we must ensure that we meet the REIT gross income tests annually and that, at the end of each calendar quarter, at least 75% of the value of our total assets consists of cash, cash items, government securities, shares in REITs and other qualifying real estate assets. In addition, certain other limitations apply to the asset we may hold, which generally limit the concentration we may hold in assets that are not qualifying real estate assets. If we fail to comply with these requirements at the end of any calendar quarter, we must correct the failure within 30 days after the end of the calendar quarter or qualify for certain statutory relief provisions to avoid losing our REIT qualification and suffering adverse tax consequences.
In addition, in order to qualify as a REIT, we must distribute to our stockholders, each calendar year, at least 90% of our REIT taxable income (including certain items of non-cash income), determined without regard to the deduction for dividends paid and excluding net capital gain. To the extent that we satisfy the 90% distribution requirement, but distribute less than 100% of our REIT taxable income, we will be subject to U.S. federal corporate income tax on our undistributed income. In addition, we will incur a 4% non-deductible excise tax on the amount, if any, by which our distributions in any calendar year are less than a minimum amount specified under U.S. federal income tax laws. We intend to distribute our taxable income to our stockholders in a manner intended to satisfy the REIT 90% distribution requirement and to avoid the 4% non-deductible excise tax.
These requirements may require us to liquidate from our portfolio, or contribute to a taxable REIT subsidiary (a “TRS”), otherwise attractive investments, and we may be unable to pursue investments that would be otherwise advantageous to us in order to satisfy the source of income or asset diversification requirements for qualifying as a REIT. These actions could have the effect of reducing our income and amounts available for distribution to our stockholders. In addition, if we are compelled to liquidate our assets, such as to repay obligations to our lenders, this could impact our qualification with the REIT requirements, and we may be required to take actions to satisfy the REIT income, asset, or distribution tests, or else fail to qualify as a REIT. No assurance can be provided that we will satisfy these requirements under all circumstances. Furthermore, in order to meet the REIT distribution requirements, we may be required to: (i) sell assets in adverse market conditions, (ii) raise debt or equity on unfavorable terms, (iii) distribute amounts that would otherwise be invested in future acquisitions, capital expenditures or repayment of debt, (iv) make a taxable distribution of our shares as part of a distribution in which stockholders may elect to receive shares or (subject to a limit measured as a percentage of the total distribution) cash or (v) use cash reserves, in order to comply with the REIT distribution requirements and to avoid U.S. federal corporate income tax and the 4% non-deductible excise tax. Thus, compliance with the REIT distribution requirements may hinder our ability to grow, which could adversely affect the value of our common stock.
Even though we qualify as a REIT, we may face tax liabilities that reduce our cash flow.
Even though we qualify for taxation as a REIT, we may be subject to certain U.S. federal, state and local taxes on our income and assets, including taxes on any undistributed income, tax on income from some activities conducted as a result of a foreclosure, and state or local income, franchise, property and transfer taxes, including mortgage recording taxes. In addition, any TRSs we own will be subject to U.S. federal, state and local corporate income or franchise taxes. In order to meet the REIT qualification requirements, or to avoid the imposition of a 100% tax that applies to certain gains derived by a REIT from sales of inventory or property held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business, we may hold some of our assets through TRSs. Any taxes paid by such TRSs would decrease the cash available for distribution to our stockholders.
The failure of assets subject to a repurchase agreement to be considered owned by us or mezzanine loans or other assets to qualify as real estate assets may adversely affect our ability to qualify as a REIT.
We may enter into repurchase agreements under which we will nominally sell certain of our assets to a counterparty and simultaneously enter into an agreement to repurchase the sold assets. We believe that we will be treated for U.S. federal income tax purposes as the owner of the assets that are the subject of any such agreements and that the repurchase agreements will be treated as secured lending transactions notwithstanding that such agreements may transfer record ownership of the assets to the counterparty during the term of the agreement. It is possible, however, that the IRS could assert that we did not own the assets during the term of the repurchase agreement, in which case our REIT asset test could be adversely affected.
In addition, we may acquire mezzanine loans, which are loans secured by equity interests in a partnership or limited liability company that directly or indirectly owns real property. In IRS Revenue Procedure 2003-65, the IRS provided a safe harbor pursuant to which a mezzanine loan, if it meets each of the requirements contained in the Revenue Procedure, will be treated by the IRS as a real estate asset for purposes of the REIT asset tests, and interest derived from the mezzanine loan will be treated as qualifying mortgage interest for purposes of the REIT 75% gross income test. Although IRS Revenue Procedure 2003-65 provides a safe harbor on which taxpayers may rely, it does not prescribe rules of substantive tax law. We may acquire mezzanine loans that may not meet all of the requirements for reliance on this safe harbor. In the event we own a mezzanine loan that does not meet the safe harbor, the IRS could challenge such loan’s treatment as a real estate asset for purposes of the REIT asset and income tests, and if such a challenge were sustained, we could fail to qualify as a REIT. Further, we invest in
assets such as C-PACE bonds and assessments, that we believe are secured by real property for purposes of the REIT income and asset tests but with respect to which no authority is directly on point. If the IRS were to successfully assert that such C-PACE assets are not qualifying assets for purposes of the REIT gross asset tests or do not generate qualifying income for purposes of the 75% gross income test, our REIT qualification could be adversely affected.
Further, under certain circumstances, interest from debt instruments that are secured by real property and other property is required to be apportioned between qualifying real estate interest and nonqualifying interest based on the principal amount of the debt instrument and the fair market value of the underlying real property. If debt instruments that we hold were to generate a greater amount of nonqualifying interest than we anticipate, we could fail to satisfy the REIT gross income test, and could lose our REIT qualification or be required to pay a penalty tax to preserve our REIT compliance.
We may be required to report taxable income for certain investments in excess of the economic income we ultimately realize from them.
To the extent we acquire debt investments in the secondary market for less than their face amount, the amount of such discount will generally be treated as “market discount” for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Market discount is generally accrued on the basis of a constant yield to maturity of a debt investment. Accrued market discount is reported as income when, and to the extent that, any payment of principal of the debt instrument is made, unless we elect to include accrued market discount in income as it accrues. Principal payments on certain loans are made monthly, and consequently accrued market discount may have to be included in income each month as if the debt investment was assured of ultimately being collected in full. If we collect less on the debt investment than our purchase price plus the market discount we had previously reported as income, we may not be able to benefit from any offsetting loss deductions.
Similarly, some of the debt investments that we acquire may have been issued with an original issue discount. We will generally be required to report such original issue discount based on a constant yield method and will be taxed based on the assumption that all future projected payments due on such debt investments will be made. If such debt investments turn out not to be fully collectible, an offsetting loss deduction will become available only in the later year that uncollectability is provable. In addition, in the event that any debt investments acquired by us are delinquent as to mandatory principal and interest payments, or in the event payments with respect to a particular debt investment are not made when due, we may nonetheless be required to continue to recognize the unpaid interest as taxable income as it accrues, despite doubt as to its ultimate collectability. While we would in general ultimately have an offsetting loss deduction available to us when such interest was determined to be uncollectible, the utility of that deduction could depend on our having taxable income in that later year or thereafter. Although we do not presently intend to, we may, in the future, acquire debt investments that are subsequently modified by agreement with the borrower. If such amendments are “significant modifications” under the applicable Treasury Regulations, we may be required to recognize taxable income as a result of such amendments. In addition, we may be required to accelerate our accrual for U.S. federal income tax purposes of certain items of income to the extent that we would otherwise recognize such items of income for U.S. federal income tax purposes later than we would report such items on our financial statements. Finally, we may be required under the terms of indebtedness that we incur with private lenders to use cash received from interest payments to make principal payments on that indebtedness, with the effect of recognizing income but not having a corresponding amount of cash available for distribution to our stockholders. These circumstances could affect our ability to satisfy the REIT distribution requirements.
The “taxable mortgage pool” rules may increase the taxes that we or our stockholders may incur and may limit the way we effect future securitizations.
Securitizations by us or our subsidiaries could result in the creation of taxable mortgage pools for U.S. federal income tax purposes. As a result, we could have “excess inclusion income.” Certain categories of stockholders, such as non-U.S. stockholders eligible for treaty or other benefits, U.S. stockholders with net operating losses, and certain U.S. tax-exempt stockholders that are subject to unrelated business income tax, could be subject to increased taxes on a portion of their dividend income from us that is attributable to any such excess inclusion income. In the case of a stockholder that is a REIT, a regulated investment company (a “RIC”), common trust fund or other pass-through entity, our allocable share of our excess inclusion income could be considered excess inclusion income of such entity. In addition, to the extent that our common stock is owned by U.S. tax-exempt “disqualified organizations,” such as certain government-related entities and charitable remainder trusts that are not subject to tax on unrelated business income, we may incur a corporate level tax on a portion of any excess inclusion income. Because this tax generally would be imposed on us, all of our stockholders, including stockholders that are not disqualified organizations, generally will bear a portion of the tax cost associated with the classification of us or a portion of our assets as a taxable mortgage pool. A RIC, or other pass-through entity owning our common stock in record name will be subject to tax at the highest U.S. federal corporate income tax rate on any excess inclusion income allocated to their owners that are disqualified organizations. Moreover, we could face limitations in selling equity interests in these securitizations to outside investors, or selling any debt securities issued in connection with these securitizations that might be considered to be equity interests for tax purposes. Finally, if we were to fail to qualify as a REIT, any taxable mortgage pool securitizations would be treated as separate taxable corporations for U.S. federal income tax purposes that could not be included in any consolidated
U.S. federal corporate income tax return. These limitations may prevent us from using certain techniques to maximize our returns from securitization transactions.
Our ownership of and relationship with our TRSs is limited and a failure to comply with the limits would jeopardize our REIT qualification and may result in the application of a 100% excise tax.
Overall, no more than 20% of the value of a REIT’s total assets may consist of stock or securities of one or more TRSs. In order to satisfy the TRS limitation, we may make loans to our TRSs that meet the requirements to be treated as qualifying investments of new capital, which are generally treated as real estate assets under the Internal Revenue Code. Because such loans are treated as real estate assets for purposes of the REIT requirements, we do not treat these loans as TRS securities for purposes of the TRS asset limitation. However, no assurance can be provided that the IRS may not successfully assert that such loans should be treated as securities of our TRSs, which could adversely impact our qualification as a REIT. In addition, our TRSs have obtained financing in transactions in which we and our other subsidiaries have provided guaranties and similar credit support. Although we believe that these financings are properly treated as financings of our TRSs for U.S. federal income tax purposes, no assurance can be provided that the IRS would not assert that such financings should be treated as issued by other entities in our structure, which could impact our compliance with the TRS limitation and the other REIT requirements. While we will be monitoring the aggregate value of the securities of our TRSs and intend to conduct our affairs so that such securities will represent less than 20% of the value of our total assets, there can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the TRS limitation in all market conditions.
Further, the TRS rules limit the deductibility of interest paid or accrued by a TRS to its parent REIT to assure that the TRS is subject to an appropriate level of corporate taxation. The rules also impose a 100% excise tax on certain transactions between a TRS and its parent REIT that are not conducted on an arm’s-length basis.
The tax on prohibited transactions limits our ability to engage in certain types of transactions, including certain methods of securitizing loans, which would be treated as sales for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
A REIT’s net income from prohibited transactions is subject to a 100% tax. In general, prohibited transactions are sales or other dispositions of property, other than foreclosure property, but including loans, held as inventory or primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business. We might be subject to this tax if we were to sell or securitize loans in a manner that was treated as a sale of the loans as inventory for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Therefore, in order to avoid the prohibited transactions tax, we may choose not to engage in certain sales of loans, other than through a TRS, and we may be required to limit the structures we use for our securitization transactions, even though such sales or structures might otherwise be beneficial for us.
Complying with REIT requirements may limit our ability to hedge effectively.
The REIT provisions of the Internal Revenue Code may limit our ability to hedge our assets and operations. Under these provisions, any income that we generate from transactions intended to hedge our interest rate exposure will be excluded from gross income for purposes of the REIT 75% and 95% gross income tests if (i) the instrument (A) hedges interest rate risk on liabilities used to carry or acquire real estate assets or certain other specified types of risk, or (B) hedges an instrument described in clause (A) for a period following the extinguishment of the liability or the disposition of the asset that was previously hedged by the hedged instrument, and (ii) such instrument is properly identified under applicable Treasury Regulations. Income from hedging transactions that do not meet these requirements will generally constitute non-qualifying income for purposes of both the REIT 75% and 95% gross income tests. As a result of these rules, we may have to limit our use of hedging techniques that might otherwise be advantageous or implement those hedges through a TRS. This could increase the cost of our hedging activities because our TRS would be subject to tax on gains or the limits on our use of hedging techniques could expose us to greater risks associated with changes in interest rates than we would otherwise want to bear. In addition, losses in our TRS will generally not provide any tax benefit to us, although subject to limitation, such losses may be carried forward to offset future taxable income of the TRS.
Legislative, regulatory, or administrative changes could adversely affect us.
The U.S. federal income tax laws and regulations governing REITs and their stockholders, as well as the administrative interpretations of those laws and regulations, are constantly under review and may be changed at any time, possibly with retroactive effect. Recently, the Biden administration has indicated an intention to enact tax legislation that could impact the taxation of an investment in our common stock. No assurance can be given as to whether, when, or in what form, the U.S. federal income tax laws applicable to us and our stockholders may be enacted. Changes to the U.S. federal income tax laws and interpretations of U.S. federal tax laws could adversely affect an investment in our common stock.
Your investment has various U.S. federal income tax risks.
We urge you to consult your tax advisor concerning the effects of U.S. federal, state, local and foreign tax laws to you regarding an investment in shares of our common stock.
Risks Related to COVID-19
The current outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted, and is likely to further cause severe disruptions in, the U.S. and global economies and financial markets and create widespread business continuity and viability issues.
COVID-19 is having significant repercussions across regional, national and global economies and financial markets, and could trigger further periods of regional, national and global economic slowdown or regional, national or global recessions. COVID-19 continues to adversely impact regional, national and global economic activity and has contributed to significant volatility and negative pressure in financial markets. The impact of the outbreak continues to rapidly evolve.
In an attempt to control COVID-19 the Federal government and most states and/or local governments, including the state in which we are headquartered and in regions where our projects and other investments are located or where they are managed, have implemented various restrictions, rules, or guidelines including quarantines, restrictions on travel, “shelter in place”, “stay at home”, or “safer at home” rules, restrictions on types of business that may continue to operate, and/or restrictions on types of construction projects allowed. While some of these restrictions have been relaxed or phased out, many of these or similar restrictions remain in place, continue to be implemented, or additional restrictions are being considered. Although, in certain cases, exceptions may be available for certain essential operations and businesses which generally include the renewable energy projects in which we invest, there is no assurance that such exceptions will enable us to avoid adverse effects to our results of operations and business. Further, such actions create disruption in energy efficiency, renewable energy, real estate and other climate solutions markets and adversely impact a number of industries.
We believe that our ability to operate and our level of business activity has been, and will in all likelihood continue to be, impacted by effects of COVID-19 and could in the future be impacted by another pandemic and that such impacts could adversely affect the profitability of our business, as well as the values of, and the cash flows from, the assets we own. For example, the effects of COVID-19 or another pandemic could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations due to, among other factors:
•interrupted service and availability of personnel, including our executive officers and other employees that are part of our management team and an inability to recruit, attract and retain skilled personnel-to the extent our management or personnel are impacted by the outbreak of pandemic or epidemic disease and are not available or allowed to conduct work, our business and operating results may be negatively impacted;
•difficulty accessing debt and equity capital on attractive terms, or at all, and severe disruption or instability in the global financial markets or deterioration in credit and financing conditions may affect our ability or the ability of our climate solutions projects and our ultimate off-taker or project users to make regular payments of principal, interest or project revenue (e.g., due to unemployment, underemployment, or reduced income or revenues) or to access savings or capital necessary to fund business operations or replace or renew maturing liabilities on a timely basis, and may adversely affect the valuation of financial assets and liabilities, any of which could result in the inability to make payments under our borrowing facilities or notes, affect our or our projects’ ability to meet liquidity, net worth, and leverage covenants under borrowing facilities or have a material adverse effect on the value of investments we hold or on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows;
•temporary or lasting changes involving the status, practices and procedures of our operations or our projects or our projects’ sponsors’ operations, including with respect to new originations of investments - to the extent we elect or are required to limit or be more selective in making new originations of investments, we may strain our relationships with business partners, customers and counterparties, breach actual or perceived obligations to them, and be subject to litigation and claims from such partners, customers and counterparties, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows; moreover, some of our ultimate off-taker or project users’ operations, or our operations, the climate solutions markets or projects and our ultimate off-taker or project users have not been able to and others may not be able to function effectively because of, among other factors, disruptions in the normal operation of climate solutions markets or projects, any inability to access short-term or long-term financing, a disruption in the market for securitization transactions, or the inability to access these markets or execute securitization transactions due to negative impacts to our, our projects or our ultimate off-taker or project users financial condition or operating capabilities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or future pandemics; any or all of these impacts could result in reduced net investment income and cash flow, as well as an impairment of our investments which reductions and impairments could be material;
•to the extent ultimate off-taker or other project users that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 or other pandemics do not timely remit payments of principal, interest or other payments (whether due to an inability to make such payments, an unwillingness to make such payments, or a waiver of the requirement to make such payments on a timely basis or at all, including under the terms of any applicable forbearance, modification, or maturity extension agreement or program (which forbearance, waiver, or maturity extension may be available as a result of a government-
sponsored or -imposed program or under any such agreement or program we or our project sponsors may otherwise offer)), then the value of our investments will likely be impaired, potentially materially; moreover, to the extent any such pandemic impacts local, regional or national economic conditions, the value of a climate solutions project is likely to decline, which would likely negatively impact the value of our investments, potentially materially;
•some of our climate solutions projects are being constructed and others are subject to ongoing maintenance; planned construction or maintenance of some of these projects have not been able to proceed on a timely basis or at all and others may be similarly affected as a result of being negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and could be similarly affected by a future pandemic, including due to operating disruptions or government mandated moratoriums on construction, development or redevelopment or the inability to source the necessary construction personnel, equipment or parts; all of the foregoing factors would likely negatively impact the value of our investments, potentially materially;
•the inability of our project sponsors to operate in affected areas, including the bankruptcy of one or more project sponsors or their suppliers, or inability of our internal resources to effectively manage our investments in certain of their activities or perform certain administration functions;
•the inability of other third-party vendors we rely on to conduct our business to operate effectively and continue to support our business and operations, including vendors that provide IT services, legal and accounting services, or other operational support services;
•the inability of our or our investments’ counterparties to make or satisfy the conditions, covenants or representations and warranties in agreements they have entered into with us or our counterparties; and
•our ability to ensure operational continuity in the event our business continuity plan is not effective or ineffectually implemented or deployed during a disruption.
COVID-19 or a future pandemic and the impacts thereof on the current financial, economic and capital markets environments and other areas are difficult to predict and could present material uncertainty and risk with respect to our performance, financial condition, volume of business, results of operations and cash flows.
To the extent the COVID-19 or a future pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section, as well as the Risk Factors in the Form 10-K, such as those relating to changes in interest rates, declining demand for our projects due to declining costs of traditionally-sourced energy, the lack of liquidity of our assets and investments, changes in the fair value of our assets, negative market conditions, our dependence on third-party contractual arrangements, our dependence on the availability of capital, changes in credit ratings assigned to our assets, counterparties to repurchase transactions’ defaulting on their obligations and our investments’ subjectivity to delinquency, foreclosure and loss.